Believe it or not, it’s been only five home League games since Wolves ran away with a rampant victory over Hull City, writes Martin Swain.

The two teams were poles apart on that April day, Wolves bound for the play-offs while Hull clung precariously to their Championship survival.

But that was then and this is now – and while it could be that the Tigers have gone forward the worry around Molineux must be that Wolves have also gone backwards.

It’s become a very difficult game for Mick McCarthy’s team and a third home defeat of the season proves it.

The vibrancy and fizz have gone, the centre of defence is uncertain, the midfield is struggling to dominate opponents while there appears to be more chance of an England cricket captain sneaking unnoticed into a lap dancing club than Andy Keogh and his colleagues scoring.

A mixed start which by Saturday had become indifferent is now dangerously close to being a downright bad’un with Saturday’s visit from Norwich a chance for the players to grab a slice of redemption.

Read the full report in the Express & Star.

Believe it or not, it’s been only five home League games since Wolves ran away with a rampant victory over Hull City, writes Martin Swain.

The two teams were poles apart on that April day, Wolves bound for the play-offs while Hull clung precariously to their Championship survival.

But that was then and this is now – and while it could be that the Tigers have gone forward the worry around Molineux must be that Wolves have also gone backwards.

It’s become a very difficult game for Mick McCarthy’s team and a third home defeat of the season proves it.

The vibrancy and fizz have gone, the centre of defence is uncertain, the midfield is struggling to dominate opponents while there appears to be more chance of an England cricket captain sneaking unnoticed into a lap dancing club than Andy Keogh and his colleagues scoring.

A mixed start which by Saturday had become indifferent is now dangerously close to being a downright bad’un with Saturday’s visit from Norwich a chance for the players to grab a slice of redemption.

But that promises to be another test of their nerve.

Despite a splendid tribute to another of the departed legends, Norman Deeley, before kick-off, this was one of those early-season, ‘workaday’ Championship fixtures which left Molineux distinctly underwhelmed and left McCarthy’s team needing to conjure something special to raise a muted atmosphere.

The players can expect the same on Saturday but simply have to work their way through what is now the stickiest patch of form and results over which this manager has presided.

Three defeats in four games is not what McCarthy’s Wolves are accustomed to but more unsettling is the form.

This group of players set high standards last season – but only once so far in this campaign, at Sheffield Wednesday, have they delivered the kind of 90 minutes they expect of themselves.

The good news is that the club does not appear to be about to go ‘all-Tottenham’ on us and make a crisis out of a disappointment.

The supporters’ frustration is the equal of that on the pitch and in the dug-out but they saved their jeers for the final whistle; no-one is in a hurry to condemn players whose effort is not questioned.

Indeed, the Molineux faithful were not so wrapped up in their own team’s troubles not to afford Jay-Jay Okocha a terrific reception when he was replaced late on.

The Nigerian is the latest former high-roller – think Merson at Portsmouth, Dugarry at Birmingham and McAllister at Coventry – to remind us of the huge gap in class by handling the Championship’s scurrying with such aplomb even as a mid-Thirtysomething.

But such a generous mood did not stop the fans registering their first major disapproval of a McCarthy decision, mind, when the ever-blunt South Bank began calling for the return of the once-derided Jody Craddock in the wake of what would prove to be Hull’s match-winning moment four minutes into the second half.

Undoubtedly, the team has yet to find balance and nowhere is this more evident than in a back four which last season was the bedrock of the campaign.

The blend of Gary Breen and Darren Ward is not suggesting a partnership while poor Neil Collins last night looked what he is – a right-footed centre-back playing left-back.

He got himself squared-up in the tackle by Richard Garcia to concede the penalty which was promptly put away by Dean Windass, something which a Mr C. Lee, of Torquay, will find amusing having been told by the Wolves board eight years ago that this crusty old Championship striker was too old to sign.

As the ‘Bring Back Craddock’ campaign was launched from behind Wayne Hennessey’s goal, McCarthy re-shuffled Collins into the centre at the expense of Ward while the scampering Michael Gray settled in at left-back and Wolves looked better for it.

But the manager knows his team won’t have anything to build upon until he can bolt down the kind of foundations which propped up the previous campaign.

Equally, Wolves won’t get any momentum until they start making the most of the chances they are creating.

After Hennessey had produced an excellent early stop to deny Bryan Hughes in the ninth minute, Wolves went on create three prime moments which would have changed this game but failed to take any of them.

All three came from crosses supplied by the commendably up-beat Michael Kightly – a 17th minute cross from which Keogh’s header bounced off Boaz Myhill’s feet and another 10 minutes later from which Stephen Ward beat Myhill only for Ian Ashbee to hook the ball off the goal-line.

Not surprisingly, by the time Keogh broke away on to a Kightly pass seven minutes from the interval with only Myhill ahead of him, you could feel the uncertainty as he bore down on goal and eventually blazed a panicky shot high and wide.

Keogh is a dilemma for McCarthy because he brings so many other qualities to his team but the goals just will not come and his substitution for Jay Bothroyd after the Hull goal was a justified if ultimately fruitless switch. Bothroyd came on to smash one screaming free-kick which Myhill saved brilliantly before squandering a glaring far post chance, yet again served up by the indefatigable Kightly.

The biggest disappointment for Wolves will be their failure to get more from Freddy Eastwood in those areas just behind the central striker which he so enjoys.

When he does get a sight of goal, Eastwood gets a surge of electricity but this team and the fans needed more than the thumping 72nd minute drive which rattled Myhill’s left hand post.

This was never a smooth or convincing Wolves performance but that still amounts to half a dozen goal attempts which might have changed the complexion on the night at any time.

While McCarthy’s concerns will be heightened, he will also know that a simple break in his team’s favour could change the season’s faltering early course.