Wolves 4 Gillingham 0 - match report
Wolves produced a fitting tribute to the late, great Dave Wagstaffe as they hammered Gillingham in a one-sided contest at Molineux.
Leigh Griffiths warmed up for Scotland's clash against England at Wembley with a brace (4 and 68 minutes) on his home debut, while the impressive Lee Evans grabbed a goal (25) on his Molineux bow and Bakary Sako smashed home the third on 31.
Head coach Kenny Jackett made five changes from Tuesday's 1-0 Capital One Cup defeat at Morecambe as Zeli Ismail made his League debut and Kevin Doyle made his first start of the summer after his comeback from the bench in midweek.
Richard Stearman, captain Sam Ricketts, Evans, Sako and Doyle replaced Ethan Ebanks-Landell, Jamie Reckord, Kevin Foley, Anthony Forde and Jake Cassidy.
The side showed two changes from last week's 0-0 draw at Preston – Ismail and Doyle for the injured Dave Edwards and Bjorn Sigurdarson, who was on the bench after recovering from a bug.
Before the kick off, which was delayed by 10 minutes, there was a minute's applause for Wagstaffe, who died on Tuesday, aged 70.
Waggy's former team-mates including Phil Parkes, Geoff Palmer, Derek Parkin, John McAlle, Kenny Hibbitt, Steve Daley, Danny Hegan, John Richards, Mel Eves and Phil Nicholls gathered on the pitch to pay their respects before current captain Sam Ricketts laid a Wolves number 11 shirt behind the North Bank goal.
When the action started, Wolves wasted no time in paying their own tribute to the popular wideman as they took the lead with their first attack.
Griffiths produced a superb turn and shot into the far corner of the net from the edge of the area from Ricketts's cross.
That settled Wolves down and Doyle was next to try his luck, only to drag his effort wide after being allowed to work himself into a good position in the ninth minute.
Two Griffiths then saw a fierce, first-time shot tipped over by keeper Stuart Nelson after Matt Doherty fed him on the edge of the box when a corner had been partly cleared.
Seconds later, Stearman, unmarked, somehow missed at the far post from no more than a couple of feet out from another Doherty cross after David Davis won the ball back following a corner.
Griffiths was never far from the action and had another two chances inside a minute.
First he saw a header nodded off the line in the 12th minute from Zeli Ismail's cross before he sidefooted straight at Nelson with an angled effort from the edge of the box.
There was a rare effort from Gillingham as Amine Linganzi fired into the sidenetting and Charlie Lee caught Carl Ikeme late but Wolves quickly returned to the attack.
Griffiths turned provider with a superb ball over the top for Sako, who dragged his angled shot disappointingly wide on 20.
But seconds later it was 2-0 when the impressive Evans flicked home into the corner of the net after Sako slid in on the edge of the box and the loose ball squirted into the path of Griffiths for a wayward shot.
Wolves made it 3-0 with their next attack when the unmarked Sako smashed home an almost unmissable chance from eight yards after some great work and a cross from Ismail on the right.
Gillingham produced their biggest threat of the half 10 minutes before half-time with a rising drive from Danny Kedwell which flew just inches over the bar from 30 yards out.
Griffiths was sniffing blood at every opportunity and he saw a rising volley acrobatically tipped over by the increasingly overworked Nelson on 39.
Stearman glanced wide from Sako's corner before Sako ballooned over after Griffiths found him in space.
Griffiths was denied again in first-half stoppage time when his chip was clawed out of the air by an acrobatic save from Nelson.
Sako led the charge in the first attack of the second half, sidefooting wide right-footed after exchanging passes with Doyle and Evans, who backheeled it into his path in the 55th minute with Nelson rooted to the spot.
The unstoppable Griffiths made it 4-0 from the spot when he drilled to Nelson's left after Leon Legge sent Evans sprawling in the box.
It was then a case of 'shots in' as the rest of the game resembled training ground practice as Wolves created and wasted numerous chances.
Sigurdarson sliced wide and was denied by Nelson's outstretched right leg as Wolves concluded one of their most emphatic home performances for a long time to send the vast majority of the 19,102 fans happy.
