Wolves 1 Birmingham 0 - Match analysis and pictures

He may still be trying to get more than half a performance out of his side but the defeat of neighbours Birmingham City at least saw his team get things the right way around – not so much a fade-out as a fade-in.

Outplayed in the first-half and yet benefitting from the game's only goal, Wolves overpowered Blues after the break and should have added at least a couple more.

That they were nevertheless able to see out a single-goal victory without major alarm says much about the momentum of the contest over the final half hour – a period in the game Molineux fans are used to dreading.

It was easy to understand the frustrations of Solbakken's opposite number Lee Clark.

Blues had dominated the opening half-hour, played some neat and occasionally menacing football from the midfield platform Wade Elliott and Jonathan Spector's established and, in Nathan Redmond, possessed a whippet of a wide player who looks every bit a match for Liverpool's wonder-kid Raheem Sterling.

But turning that potential into a goal threat against a Wolves defence in which their old boy Roger Johnson was outstanding was the nub of his team's shortfall.

Carl Ikeme would make one wonderful, leaping save to deny Paul Caddis in the first 15 minutes after which he was not seriously troubled. As a result, Clark is facing an anxious Christmas period trying to satisfy perhaps unreasonable demands for a repeat of last season's promotion challenge; in contrast, Solbakken can breathe much more easily while admiring his car's new paint job.

He will know his team will be much more of concerted threat to the play-offs group from which they are now five points distant if ever he can extend their hot spells from 45 minutes to, say, 65 or 70.

And maybe that is no more complicated then coaxing more and more from Bakary Sako.

There were several contenders for Wolves' man of the match but it was given to the player who continues to be Solbakken's main game-winner and, yes, you could understand why.

His second half explosion into his first English derby – accompanied by a rousing-enough atmosphere despite the rotten kick-off time – followed a stern talking-to from Solbakken at half-time.

"I had to tell him the game started at 5.20pm," said the Wolves manager, ". . . and not 5.45pm."

However, while it is heartening to see Kevin Doyle producing football much more reminiscent of his first year at the club, it is when Sako starts flying that Wolves truly threaten opponents and their second-half surge towards Jack Butland's goal was largely generated by Sako's combination of pace, power, delivery and old-fashioned trickery.

Doyle would have been another champagne contender for the energy and, perhaps more significantly, purpose which is once more flooding his game. He was unable to follow up his two goals at Bristol with a score in this one, a first half effort ruled out for an offside call he remained convinced was wrong, but he is at last putting Championship defenders under the kind of pressure his quality demands.

Johnson, ably assisted by Christophe Berra it should be noted, enjoyed the kind of game any player craves when facing his former club.

There have been odd occasions this season when Wolves have been fractured too easily in front of Ikeme but the general impression left by the Johnson-Berra partnership is that they are more than capable of establishing the kind of platform from which winning runs are built.

Solbakken, too, must have been delighted with captain Karl Henry after the break.

This was Henry at his best, 'minding' the game, pushing Wolves forward when required while ensuring the back door was never left swinging on its hinges.

In short, some trusted old hands gave Wolves fans a strong hint that they are getting to grips with the challenge of adapting new ways to old strengths.

The only strange note was the strange goal which settled the game. Worryingly for a Blues team which has been breached far too frequently for Clark's peace of mind this season, it came from the first thrust of real pressure Wolves exerted on their goal after half an hour.

But a cheap free-kick conceded by Steven Caldwell – or won by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, depending on your viewpoint – was driven with such venom by Sako that in-form striker Marlon King's only shot on target flew into his own net.

It certainly wasn't one to remember but perhaps the significance of the result – and the second-half performance – will be one to mark as a turning point.

Martin Swain