“Top of the league, you’re having a laugh” reverberated around the half-built Bloomfield Road, writes Tim Nash.

It’s a song Wolves are getting used to.

Well, if Wolves can play this bad for 50 or so minutes and still score two goals and claim a point, then the laugh is on the rest of the Championship, because it’s Mick McCarthy’s side who are all smiles going into 2009.

For the second time in four days, there were mixed feelings after another draw.

Given another first-half performance when Wolves were second best, it wasn’t difficult to view this as a point gained, especially as this one saw Wolves regain their seven-point lead at the top.

On the flip side, the timing of Blackpool’s second equaliser with six minutes left meant there was also a feeling of two lost as Wolves conceded a poorly defended goal from their former defender Rob Edwards.

Edwards’ first goal since scoring for Wolves in their 4-2 home defeat against Stoke on February 9 would have been celebrated almost as loudly in Reading and the blue half of Birmingham as in this freezing corner of Lancashire.

But even the most ardent gold and black diehard surely wouldn’t have begrudged Blackpool a share of the spoils after their team – just like they did against Birmingham – only really came alive in the last 35 minutes.

Despite sub-zero temperatures and the match being shown live on Sky, the arrival of the Championship’s lead role attracted Blackpool’s second highest gate of the season. And in keeping with the song they keep hearing, opposition teams are raising their game when Wolves are in town. This draw made it five matches unbeaten for McCarthy’s side but there is no doubt they are finding it harder to overcome teams.

It’s not clear at the moment whether the increased difficulty Wolves are having in winning games is caused by the opposition upping their levels, or that their own performances have dipped.

But what is in no doubt is that their last three games have all been huge battles.

Wolves have had to dig deep into their reservoirs of recovery to summon improvements in the second halves against Doncaster, Sheffield United and now Blackpool.

Heavens, they were second best for almost an hour against Barnsley.

This time the spark came from an unexpected source, but nonetheless someone who has proved his reliability on so many occasions this season.

Not for the first time either, the inspiration came from the bench.

Still full of the sniffles from his virus, Stephen Ward was clearly well below full fitness, but his 57th minute arrival triggered a Wolves revival.

Playing in front of makeshift left-back Kevin Foley, who was occupying his third different position of the night after starting at right midfield before switching wings, Ward raised the tempo with a series of driving runs at the Blackpool defence.

First he was inches wide from Matt Jarvis’ cross, and it was from another speedy raid that Ward engineered a high speed break that led to Wolves’ second goal in the 70th minute.

His interception and pass found Ebanks-Blake, and the powerful striker spotted the run of Jarvis, and the fleet-footed winger did the rest with a lofted finish over American keeper Paul Rachubka.

It looked odds-on to give Wolves the last laugh, but Edwards’ late intervention saw that Jarvis’ first goal since December 22 last year wasn’t to be the match-winner on his 150th League appearance.

Up until Ward’s arrival, McCarthy’s side had been forced on to the back foot, their passing little better than it had been against Sheffield United on Boxing Day.

True, it seemed to “stick” more with the front two, but despite the pre-match pleas of captain Karl Henry, they were guilty of being sloppy in possession again.

In fact, the biggest crime during a largely one-sided first-half in favour of the Tangerines was to ignore their most likely matchwinner, Jarvis.

Pitted against summer Wolves trialist Ian Harte, it was a shoe-in who was going to win any race between them, but his team-mates failed to use this particular weapon to their advantage.

The one time he found himself free, Jarvis raced clear on to Ebanks-Blake’s lifted pass, only to fire wide.

Earlier, Rachubka was given no chance as Wolves made the most of a debatable penalty decision to take a fourth minute lead.

For the second time in five games, Wolves were given a spot-kick in the opening moments, after Rob Edwards manhandled Chris Iwelumo as he tried to turn. And just like against Derby, Ebanks-Blake gave the keeper no chance as he blasted home his 15th goal of the season to move into his second half century of career goals.

Unlike against the Rams, any thoughts that the early strike would settle Wolves’ nerves were swiftly extinguished as Blackpool equalised just six minutes later.

Gary Taylor-Fletcher was given too much space to ram home a bouncing ball at the far post after Ian Evatt beat Iwelumo to Shaun Barker’s long throw and Neill Collins and Richard Stearman chased in vain.

It speaks volumes for the form of Collins though that McCarthy chose to move Stearman in his latest reshuffle.

In fact the man who has spent most of his career in the position at Leicester took time to adapt to right-back again and may have been lucky not to have conceded a penalty for his close attentions to Kyel Reid, before Wayne Hennessey clawed away a curling effort from Alan Gow that may have been heading wide anyway.

Blackpool were building up a head of steam anyway before Edwards’ late strike, Foley producing a superb block to deny Joe Martin’s angled effort before Evatt headed over.

But after his heroics denied Sheffield United on Boxing Day, Hennessey was at fault as he beaten to the punch by Evatt to Reid’s free kick.

Although his strike was greeted by Blackpool grins as wide as their promenade, Edwards didn’t over-celebrate his equaliser out of respect for Wolves.

But it’s his old club who remain in the box seat for the last laugh.