Wolves blog: What a difference a game makes

The gap between Wolves and Cardiff dropped to three points, the lowest it had been since the gap was opened up, until Wolves beat Leeds 3-0.

That convincing win gave Wolves much-needed breathing space, restoring the gap between themselves and third-placed Aston Villa to a comfortable ten ahead of the pair’s clash.

Optimism was high after a dominant performance and we went into the derby nervous but hopeful.

But Wolves’ worst result and definitely their worst second-half performance of the season reintroduced the jitters big time - and the gap fell to three and seven over Cardiff and Villa respectively.

Sky Sports pundits Keith Andrews and Lee Hendrie both agreed after the match that Wolves’ automatic promotion chances were no longer a certainty, whilst Villa fans spoke with glee at the fact they were close to overtaking Wolves in the league.

With two games to go until the international break at home to Reading and Burton, the pressure was, and is, on Wolves to achieve maximum points.

A first-half header from Matt Doherty relieved some of the tension at Molineux on Tuesday, especially as Cardiff went into half-time leading at Brentford.

Wolves’ 3-0 win in the end was as comfortable as we’ve seen at Molineux this season.

Aston Villa’s collapse at home to QPR completely nullified their achievement against us on the weekend – they are now in a worse position than before they played us, with two games less and no chance to take three points directly from us again this season.

A ten-point gap with nine games to go, five of which are at home, is certainly a strong position.

In the space of three games, Wolves have gone from promotion certainties, to potential 2002 copycats, to looking very good again.

The goal difference cushion Wolves partly lost on the weekend has also been restored to seven over Cardiff and nine over both Villa and Fulham.

Fulham face Villa’s victors QPR in the early kick off, whilst Villa travel to Bolton in the evening and Cardiff go to Derby on Sunday at lunchtime.

Wolves ought to record a similar result against Burton to ones achieved over Leeds and Reading – before the Leeds game, I would have taken nine or ten points from the next four.

Weekend games typically generate a better atmosphere than a midweek game, and Wolves got the pre-match build-up perfect against Reading – Faithless and fireworks definitely get the adrenalin going.

A bumper crowd at Molineux will be expecting to see similar scenes to that against Reading – where Ruben Neves controlled the game and played passes that were world class.

The returning Ryan Bennett was also deeply impressive and Helder Costa had one of his best games for a while – though how he missed that chance at 3-0 up beggars belief.

Wolves unfortunately lost Diogo Jota to injury, meaning Costa and Ivan Cavaleiro will likely feature either side of Afobe – potentially opening up a spot on the bench for forgotten man Jordan Graham.