Johan Elmander has gone down in Wanderers’ folklore for a special goal he scored against Wolves 16 years ago next month. Josh Sheehan can now join him after he put the seal on another epic win for the Whites, writes Pete Oliver.
Elmander’s twinkled-toed effort help seal a Premier League victory at Molineux and the three goals the Whites scored that day were matched by three more claimed by Atsuki Ito, Sam Dalby and Sheehan.
Ito’s and Dalby’s were tidy finishes as Steven Schumacher’s men set up a third win in four games and second successive away victory.
Ito, whose first goal for the club had sealed a win at Norwich City last time, gave Wanderers a half-time lead and Dalby’s fourth goal of the season restored the lead after Wolves – one of the pre-season promotion favourites – had equalised early in the second half.
But Sheehan’s goal was on a different level as the conductor of the team picked his moment to score a first goal at Championship level, volleying home from long range to cap another outstanding effort from him and his team-mates as they passed a major test to get their season moving again with another stand-out result.
On the back of Saturday’s defeat to Stoke City and in the first of two potentially tough away games in five days Schumacher shook things up with five changes to his starting line-up.
Samuel Iling-Junior was among those to return and back in the Midlands the former Aston Villa had the chance to make an instant impact.
Released by Josh Sheehan’s peach of a pass, the winger was clean through on goal but didn’t set himself ideally to try and beat Jose Sá and saw his stabbed finish blocked by the Wolves’ keeper.
It was a near carbon copy of Kyliane Dong’s early miss against Stoke but this time Wanderers avoided going behind as Adam Armstrong mis-cued a couple of efforts and Mateus Mané curled an effort just wide for a Wolves side also looking to bounce back from a weekend defeat.
The Midlanders were unbeaten at home since their relegation from the Premier League last season but were never allowed to dominate by the Whites, who brought Lewis Brunt and Akin Famewo into a re-shuffled back four and when the opportunity arose looked dangerous on the break.
Sheehan was again a key man and after he saw a deflected shot palmed away by Sá had a hand in the goal that saw Wanderers go ahead with almost half an hour played. Collecting a short corner from Iling-Junior, Sheehan flicked over a cross Sá couldn’t hold and Ito pounced to volley home his second goal in three games.
Wolves went close to equalising when Fer Lopez headed straight at Gavin Bazunu but that was the first save the Whites’ keeper had had to make and the frustration within the stadium – bar the delighted 2,500 Wanderers’ fans – was audible as Schumacher’s men went into the break in front.
Within five minutes of the re-start the mood had changed, however, as the home side did make it 1-1. Wanderers hadn’t regained their foothold in the contest and were caught out by a ball over the top from Ladislav Krejcí for Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to get to before Famewo and steer a shot across and beyond Bazunu.
Armstrong then clipped an effort into the side netting and with Wanderers needing to stem the flow, Schumacher made three changes from the bench. One of those saw the introduction of Dalby in place of Thelonius Bair, who had put in a decent shift, and the top scorer was straight back in the groove.
Minutes after Wolves would have led but for a magnificent save from Bazunu to keep out Armstrong’s close-range effort, Dalby popped up at the other end to meet Gaizka Larrazabal’s perfect low cross with a slick near-post finish.
And if that had Wanderers’ fans in raptures, then Sheehan’s strike with eight minutes to go had them in full party mode. The Welsh wizard was filly 30 yards from goal when he collected a bouncing ball but from the moment his dipping volley left his foot, it was going nowhere but past a stunned Sá and into the back of the net.
It was a magical way to end a special night as Wanderers pulled out another big result to show again they belong at this level.
Wanderers: Bazunu; Larrazabal, Toal, Brunt, Famewo; Iling-Junior (Nelson 63), Sheehan, Erhahon (Simons 78), Gale (Conway 78); Ito (Rodrigues 66); Bair (Dalby 66). Substitutes: Bonham, Davies, Lott, Hardie.
Booked: Larrazabal, Erhahon
Wolves: Sá; Trippier, Djiga, Krejcí, Bueno (Konan 80); André (Neave 85), James (Munetsi 80); Bellegarde, López, Mané (Saïd 63); Armstrong. Substitutes: Virgínia, Doyle, Chirewa, Toti, Tchatchoua.
Booked: Mané, Trippier
Referee: Tim Robinson