Wolves back to winning ways - match analysis

Normal service resumed. While it was an unfamiliar Wolves line-up at Bramall Lane, there was a welcome familiarity to the outcome.

After starting with pretty much the same players in the previous seven games, head coach Kenny Jackett made four changes to the side beaten 2-1 at Crawley on Tuesday.

Jackett felt the team had lacked energy in the two previous games and needed freshening up.

But his decision paid off as Matt Doherty, Lee Evans, Dave Edwards and Leon Clarke fitted in seamlessly and those replaced – Sam Ricketts, Jack Price, Bakary Sako and Nouha Dicko – formed part of the strongest bench Wolves have had all season.

So, although the personnel was different, you could barely make out the join as Wolves reeled off win number 24 and their 20th clean sheet of 2013-14.

Sheffield United might have been celebrating their 125th birthday, but for Wolves there was a feeling of being back in a routine, like the recent record-breaking nine-match run of victories.

From the moment Edwards swept home a volley from man of the match James Henry eight minutes after the break, there was a growing inevitability about the result.

And for that, Jackett's much-changed side deserved credit for their composure and confidence.

The Blades went into this fixture on the back of their own impressive set of numbers – 11 games unbeaten, 10 wins and eight consecutive clean sheets – which had carried them from second from bottom in the table to 10th and into the FA Cup semi-finals.

And yet once Wolves were two goals to the good, the visitors sensed victory was theirs amid an increasingly wilting opposition which seemed to tire and run out of ideas.

Indeed, apart from Clarke lifting the ball over the bar with only keeper Mark Howard to beat, there wasn't another chance after Edwards' decisive strike.

For Wolves it was about controlling proceedings and seeing the game out, and that they did with poise and style.

But, while the outcome in south Yorkshire was in little doubt, the fog surrounding their ultimate goal has started to slightly lift. The finishing line is still some way distant, but with nine games left, they are finally starting to see a chink of daylight between the automatic promotion places and the play-offs.

A return to winning ways for Wolves and a 1-1 draw for Leyton Orient at Walsall meant the gap to third place is now five points and Jackett's side have a game in hand on the Os.

But if their grip on an automatic promotion place became firmer on Saturday, the battle for the title could go to the wire.

With Brentford winning again, Wolves' lead is still only a point and the Bees have a game in hand on them.

However, although Wolves still have to go to Orient and host Rotherham and Peterborough, most of the rest of the fixtures don't carry the same concern as this one had.

Jackett and his players will only be focusing on Colchester tomorrow night and then Milton Keynes Dons on Saturday.

Rightly so, but both have the stamp of victory waiting to be applied to them if the players perform as reliably as they did on Saturday.

As ever, it wasn't as straightforward as the scoreline suggests and there was plenty of work to do before earning their 11th away win of the season, Carl Ikeme producing an instinctive, superb save to his left to stop Jose Baxter's shot from the edge of the six-yard box after just four minutes.

It also needed a smart header on the line from the immaculate Richard Stearman to deny John Brayford just before half-time to keep their lead intact. But after two games where the opposition's prime focus was purely to stop Wolves from playing, the sight of the other team taking the game to them was as welcome as it was useful to them.

Under Jackett, Wolves have developed an efficient habit of being able to soak up pressure before hitting teams on the break.

So it proved on Saturday, although their first goal came after they enjoyed a decent slab of possession of their own.

Like his goal at Brentford, Henry's 16th-minute opener at Bramall Lane was also a cross, as Wolves enjoyed an element of good fortune.

Perhaps it was always going to take something freakish to breach United's defence after 798 minutes without conceding.

But the hard-running Edwards, who played well on his return to the side, deserves a special mention for his part in the goal though because it was his run in front of Howard that deceived the keeper and allowed the ball to sail unchallenged into the top corner of the net.

Frustratingly, Wolves' chances of success in this game were complicated by the referee.

It felt as if they were playing against 12 men most of the time as Premier League official Kevin Friend did his best to be the star of the show.

One of the charms of playing in League One is its honesty; officials generally allow games to flow and there is very little of the play-acting seen at the top levels of the game.

But the appearance of Friend coincided with an incessantly blowing whistle and six bookings for Wolves when quite conceivably, another referee on another week wouldn't have shown a single yellow card.

Led by a breathless performance by Henry, Wolves managed to keep their collective cool however and steer a path to victory.

The former Millwall winger hadn't quite matched his pre-injury levels of performance in recent games.

But on Saturday, he was the man who made things happen as Jackett opted for a tweaked 4-1-4-1 formation with Kevin McDonald sitting in front of the back four.

Henry scored the first goal, made a stylish second when his cross was dummied by Evans and volleyed home by Edwards, and, in between, also curled a rasping effort against the inside of the post just after the half hour.

Henry also set up Clarke's big moment which sadly summed up the latter's so far uncomfortable return 'home'.

The sight of the striker lifting the ball into the away end with only Howard to beat conveyed a message that where Clarke and Wolves are concerned, nothing will be easy.

But equally, the sight of the likes of Ricketts –who came on for the unfortunate Matt Doherty, who went off with what is hoped is just cramp – Price, Sako and Dicko on the bench is a reassuring one at this level.

Jackett said afterwards he will use all 20 players between now and the end of the season.

And the fact that a much-changed team can achieve such a valuable win as this is surely a sign that the promotion bandwagon is firmly back on course.