Classic match report - Wolves 1 Manchester United 0, 2004
If ever the odds were against Wolves in a league match, this was it.
Bottom of the league versus top, a club that had spent £3.75m the previous summer versus one that had spent £56m improving a team that was already the finest in the land.
There were mismatches all over the pitch - Ruud van Nistelrooy versus Paul Butler, Rio Ferdinand versus Steffen Iversen and the future best player on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo, versus Bloxwich's finest, Lee Naylor.
A Wolves win was out of the question. But, somehow, they did it, and Molineux rocked to one of the best atmospheres in living memory.
MATCH REPORT
Wolves 1 Man United 0, January 17, 2004
Memorable Miller strike seals shock
Kenny Miller's first-ever Premiership goal proved to be one to remember after Wolves turned the table upside-down with a famous win.
Miller seized on a defensive error to slide the ball past Manchester United keeper Tim Howard in the 67th minute and seal the shock result of the season.
The young Scot was already walking on cloud nine after banging home both goals in the midweek FA Cup third round replay win over Kidderminster.
But Saturday's strike earned the far richer prize of three unlikely points which lent succour to his side's survival fight and stalled the champions' bid to retain their crown.
Stony-faced United chief Sir Alex Ferguson will take his side off for a mid-season break in Dubai this week with the worries piling up.
His day was summed up by the sight of Rio Ferdinand hobbling off early in the second half to begin his eight-month drugs ban pending an appeal. Ferdinand had fallen awkwardly with just 14 minutes gone.
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Ruud van Nistelrooy and David Bellion were both denied late equalisers by fine saves from home keeper Michael Oakes while Paul Scholes also shot wide.
But Wolves deserved their points, which extended their unbeaten home run to 10 games.
When his side were mauled 5-0 by Chelsea last September boss Dave Jones could hardly have imagined this vital result against the champions.
But a great run of home form has helped his side believe that they can make history and become the first team in Premiership history to win their battle for survival from bottom place at Christmas.
The champions – unbeaten since November but looking lacklustre shorn of injured pair Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville – struggled.
Ronaldo's second-minute cross towards van Nistelrooy augured well. Van Nistelrooy – chasing two more goals to take his United tally to 100 – knocked an overhead kick onto the roof of the net.
Then Paul Scholes' flicked header from Darren Fletcher's deep right-wing cross in the 21st minute suggested an opener for United was only a matter of time.
Scrambled Wolves seemed short on firepower with Miller and Steffen Iversen struggling to make an impression.
Wolves 'keeper Michael Oakes almost gifted United the lead on the half-hour when he failed to hold Ronaldo's right-wing cross and eventually scrambled the ball clear.
Van Nistelrooy headed a golden chance over from close-range moments later then Oakes parried away Quinton Fortune's free-kick.
United were angered by a penalty appeal when Fletcher fell under Oakes' challenge in the box.
Seeking more pace up front, Ferguson made his first change in the 66th minute, replacing Fletcher with Bellion.
But moments later Wolves were in dreamland when Irwin's flick allowed Miller to score his side's first goal against United since 1984.
Ferguson flung on Diego Forlan and Kennedy had to head a Ronaldo cross behind as the visitors piled forward.
It was all United and van Nistelrooy had the ball in the net, though the effort was disallowed for offside.
Wolves were hanging on desperately at times but relief and exultation swept around Molineux at full time.
Wolves: Oakes; Irwin, Craddock, Butler, Naylor; Newton, Ince, Rae, Kennedy; Miller, Iversen (Ganea 80). Subs not used: Cameron, Clyde, Kachloul, Ikeme.
Man Utd: Howard; O'Shea, Ferdinand (Brown 50), Silvestre, Fortune; Fletcher (Bellion 65), Keane, Phil Neville (Forlan 68), Scholes, Ronaldo; Van Nistelrooy. Subs not used: Butt, Carroll.
ANALYSIS
Surely now, anything is possible. Not easy. Far from certain. Perhaps still improbable. But surely now, possible.
And that is the true value of one of the finest days in the contemporary history of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.
If Saturday's momentous events at Molineux were about anything, they were a reminder that football is a game which refuses to be chained by logic.
And the logic which demands Wolves will be relegated has just been blown out of the water.
It left Molineux shuddering with excitement and under the glare of a football world sharing in its delighted disbelief.
But now, two days after the taming of Manchester United, comes an even greater demand on Dave Jones and his players.
They have to make it count. They have to make it mean something more than a result greeted with glee but dismissed as a freak.
It goes against the nature of Jones's team to willingly play a game on the back foot, to accept the authority of United's constant advances could not be questioned and that any reward would have to be taken from the crumbs left behind.
Wolves accepted that reality and did a 'rope-a-dope' number on Sir Alex Ferguson's forces. United punched themselves out, beaten back time and again by defending of magnificent effort, discipline and application, before being left on the canvas by one precision second-half punch to the jaw from Kenny Miller.
But if this historic win does not prove the force is with Wolves, it does tell us it has not entirely deserted them.
Molineux on Saturday, to borrow from a conversation with captain Ince in the build-up to the United game, the support was 'something else'.
When Miller pounced on Wes Brown's lost-footing to strike what would be the match-winner, there were still 23 minutes for Wolves to negotiate against a team which can and does destroy opponents in less than half that time.
Miller and his colleagues had ploughed so much into reaching that point, no-one was banking on anything.
It was then that the family that is Wolves showed what can happen when it unites as one.
There was not a Wolves player who, after the game, did not doff his cap to the inspiration they sucked from the sheer volume of thundering conviction which poured down from all four sides of the stadium.
It filled their lungs and flooded the aching calves and hamstrings. And the effect was tangible.
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