After a two-week break for internationals, Molineux welcomed back the sharp, snappy, wing-driven attacking football to which it has become accustomed this season.

But enough about Coventry. How on earth did Wolves smuggle three points out of this game?

Mick McCarthy’s team returned to the Championship summit with a performance which drew on last season’s virtues more than the swagger of their bold strides in the opening months of this campaign.

Resilience, stubbornness, a victory for willpower and willingness when all else fails.

Their neighbours were the more impressive force at the beginning and the end of this contest but squandered their opportunities to give the returning Freddy Eastwood a comeback to remember.

Instead it was the table-leaders – and that sounds so good for Molineux fans you can’t write it enough – who had the match-winners in Freddy’s old mates Michael Kightly and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

Wolves were also able to meet the first law of all successful teams by winning while not playing particularly well.

Kightly, benefitting from a peach of a pass by the maligned Andy Keogh, dug out an equaliser to an early goal from Michael Mifsud, before Ebanks-Blake turned on the juice to elude the excellent ex-Saddler Scotty Dann just once to fashion and finish Wolves winner.

Both were among a group of Wolves players short of 100 per cent after recent injuries and/or suspensions, leaving the home camp grateful to their other match-winner, a figure who through no fault of his own has been so low profile I bet he’s barely sold a souvenir shirt at the club shop.

Ever since Matt Murray stepped in for the injured Michael Oakes in the promotion season, Wolves goalkeeping’ history has been marked by young men taking advantage of a colleague’s misfortune.

Murray lost out to Wayne Hennessey and now Hennessey has lost out to Carl Ikeme. For how long we, like Hennessey, will have to wait to discover but McCarthy’s decision to recognise possession as nine-tenths of the law was handsomely rewarded by a stand-out performance by the Third Man in the club’s goalkeeping department.

Full marks to the manager at this point. The easy call would have been to return Hennessey to the starting position, especially after the young Welshman had got himself back in form with his performance for his country in Germany a few days earlier.

I what he believes is a core message of his management, McCarthy rewarded the less-celebrated Ikeme for his fault-free goalkeeping before the break. He had done nothing to warrant losing his place; it is now his position to lose or Hennessey’s to regain via the training pitches, while Murray prepares to renew his challenge with some badly-needed football on loan.

Twice Ikeme prevented Wolves falling two-down, a position they would most likely have been incapable of retrieving, before the interval and then twice prevented a Coventry equaliser during the away team’s threatening finale.

Something, or someone, is eventually going to have to give in the goalkeeping section and this performance by the least-heralded of the trio suggests it should not be assumed it will be Ikeme.

With their young keeper propping up a faltering victory after those consecutive defeats by Reading and Swansea, there will be Wolves fans now worrying that a decline from the free-scoring high points – climaxed by victory at Preston – has been detected.

In answer to those anxieties, McCarthy was right to point out his difficulties patching together a team from players who dribbled back from national service during the week to re-join those key attacking figures Kightly, Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo trying to top-up their fitness.

Wolves were never going to keep smashing opponents out of sight especially with their resources stretched by so many injuries in the last couple of months. Yes, it will be comforting to see them find top gear again but in the meantime, this win should be greeted as an early deposit against the inevitable day they play far, far better and lose.

Coventry will feel aggrieved at their fate but can only blame themselves for failing to take their opportunities at key times. Eastwood, welcomed back with some half-hearted stick, played the penultimate role in a sweet five-man move which finished with Mifsud prodding the ball beyond Ikeme in the sixth minute.

For the third game running, Wolves had conceded in the first 10 minutes and with Coventry buoyant throughout this opening phase, they were grateful that Ikeme stood up superbly to one-on-one duels with Leon Best and Mifsud before the away team’s authority was shaken just before half-time.

Although his difficulty has not yet reached Collins-esque proportions, Keogh is going through the kind of sticky patch with some Wolves fans which asks questions of both nerve and character.
Full marks, then, for the pass he picked out for the predatory Kightly as he eluded Coventry’s attention just before the break.

Kightly’s finish came despite a heavy touch to take the ball beyond Kieren Westwood – a symptom of his lack of sharpness – but it gave Wolves the impetus to develop enough threat in the second-half’s opening phase.

With Iwelumo and Kightly leading the way and Kevin Foley driving forward in a superb exhibition at right back, Ebanks-Blake took up the baton and caught Danns napping to power his way past the defender just before the hour.

He crossed, ran out of play but then sneaked back on the pitch in time to force home the loose ball after Westwood had only been able to parry Kightly’s forceful shot.

Coventry rightly nursed some grievance about that although it should be pointed out that TV replays suggested an Iwelumo effort swept home from close range a few moments later was scrubbed out by an incorrect offside call.

Wolves could have done with that break because they only made it to the win-line thanks to a flurry of late saves from Ikeme, denying Best and substitute Clinton Morrison at point-blank range.

The miss by Coventry defender Elliott Ward, who somehow failed to connect with Best’s header from a Fox free-kick, in the midst of this pressure was a gift from the heavens for the home side.

There will be days, we can be sure, when the fates will not be so kind.