Pictures and analysis of Wolves 1 Huddersfield 3

What a mess.

A series of awful decisions from the very top, a chronically under-performing squad of players and a heap of injuries sees Wolves staring League One in the face.

The message from many fans is loud and clear: Hang your heads in shame, the lot of you. And who can blame them? What we witnessed on Saturday was as disgraceful as it was unbelievable.

There are many reasons why a squad earning £25m a year has got itself into such a spiral of despair.

But nothing will take away the horrible reality that the most expensively assembled group of players in the club's history after last season are threatening to do what only one post-war Wolves team has done – drop into the third tier of English football. The last time it happened, in 1984-85, there was no expectancy and no hope. Hope had been strangled out of the club by the Bhatti brothers who were happy to let the club die.

This time it's different.

There's far more anger and frustration and a deep sense of resentment towards the under-achieving players from the long-suffering supporters, because the team shouldn't be where it is.

But they are running out of options to find a lifeline to rescue themselves.

Like a blind man grasping in the dark, beleaguered manager Dean Saunders is stumbling into obstacles at every turn.

From being robbed of six players in four weeks, he now has to cope without Jamie O'Hara for three of the last four games after his moment of stupidity on Saturday.

Not only that, but the senior players on whom he should be able to rely on are letting him down badly. How can experienced players such as Roger Johnson, Kaspars Gorkss and Karl Henry look so out of sorts?

And the two young full-backs who have been beacons of hope in recent weeks, Matt Doherty and Jack Robinson, are beginning to show signs of struggle.

Three minutes of madness summed up a season of embarrassment for this once-proud club. First Henry was beaten in the air by James Vaughan to Oliver Nrowood's corner and Jermaine Beckford lashed home to put Huddersfield ahead in the 69th minute. Within 60 seconds, Beckford left Gorkss and Johnson for dead before calmly dinking the ball over Dorus De Vries.

Then just to bury any thoughts of a remarkable comeback came O'Hara's hand in the face on Keith Southern, whose own play-acting was equally distasteful.

Quite how it got to that point is still baffling, even by Wolves' capacity for self destruction.

They delivered on their promise of going for Huddersfield's throats to start as well as they have under Saunders, grabbing a fourth-minute lead when Stephen Ward slid the ball home from Kevin Doyle's left-wing cross in a delightful move he started himself in his own half.

But, despite plenty of possession, they failed to create the clear-cut chances to get the second goal they needed.

Instead it was Huddersfield who were allowed to seize the initiative.

The warning signs came when Johnson was beaten by Vaughan to Norwood's cross only to slide the ball wide.

Then they equalised when Sean Scannell twice beat Doherty then Hunt before lashing past De Vries to spark a purple patch from the visitors that left Wolves rattled. De Vries bravely slid in on Adam Clayton after he slalomed through Johnson and Gorkss then the keeper pulled off a fine save to deny Neil Danns.

Wolves started the second half as they had the first, but Doyle, Ward, Bjorn Sigurdarson then Johnson all spurned good chances before the match turned.

After the game changed so violently, Wolves' 10 remaining players tried to rally.

But it was too little, too late. Any belief had been irretrievably punctured.

The fans knew it. Flashes of angerwere sparked by Huddersfield's third goal before O'Hara's sending off spawned 'You're not fit to wear the shirt' chants.

However, then came the worst sound of all. Silence. And when Molineux goes silent, you know there's trouble.

Because silence means apathy, and when the only noise is the sound of thousands of feet trudging dejectedly to the exits, it suggests the fans are resigned to their fate.

Relegation. Again.

There wasn't even a rallying call when the fourth official's board went up to signal six minutes of time added on.

And why? Because these loyal fans – 23,185 on Saturday for goodness sake – have had enough. They are sick to the back teeth of a team which lets them down, time and time again.

Who can blame the missing thousands for not renewing their Early Bird season tickets? And now, ready to compound that misery, Steve Bruce – the man the board disregarded – is rubbing his hands together waiting to hammer another nail in the coffin.

What a mess.

By Tim Nash