Wolves 1 West Brom 5 - Wolves analysis
Mick McCarthy apologised for the first time in his career after a defeat.
Mick McCarthy apologised for the first time in his career after a defeat.
But it's going to take a lot more than the manager's "sorry" to erase the pain of this humiliation for thousands of angry, disenchanted Wolves fans.
It's been more than a decade since we last saw fans demonstrating outside the ground, when Sir Jack Hayward was spat at. The nature and magnitude of this thoroughly depressing setback was the trigger for hundreds to gather around the Billy Wright statue after the game and chant for the head of the manager.
There were still fans singing 'We want McCarthy out' over an hour after the final whistle.
It was a black day in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers and a new low for beleaguered McCarthy.
Any defeat hurts, and a loss to Albion deepens the pain. But the manner of this capitulation – to coin a phrase used by McCarthy afterwards – cast a huge cloud over the club that right now looks like it's going to take some lifting.
As Albion tore Wolves apart, there was the depressing sight of fans remonstrating angrily with people in the directors' box.
Trouble on and off the pitch, and it all leads to McCarthy, now firmly entrenched in the deepest crisis of his reign.
He has done a remarkable job over the last five-and-a-half years.
And it's difficult to imagine anyone getting more effort and commitment out of the players. A more honourable man of more integrity you couldn't wish to find.
At his press conference afterwards, he vowed to fight on, convinced he is still the man to ride the storm and lead Wolves to safety.
He's not a quitter either, so those thinking he might walk should think again.
But what chairman Steve Morgan has to decide is whether McCarthy's presence is now becoming counter-productive.
It seems there are a growing number of fans waiting to see him fail, and it is against that backdrop of discontent that Morgan has to weigh up whether his manager's time is up.
The absence of a suitable replacement is also a factor in McCarthy's favour, while the fans' sniping at Morgan yesterday about where he can stick his executive houses suggests the fans don't lay the blame squarely at the manager's door.
Yesterday's defeat dropped Wolves back into the relegation zone, on goal difference.
This time last season, they were bottom and two points from safety after beating Manchester United, with three more points than they have now.
But it's difficult to think the Wolves team of last season would fold like this.
That they had dragged themselves level by half-time courtesy of Steven Fletcher's fantastically executed 10th goal of the season was a travesty after a truly awful first half. Wayne Hennessey made four fine saves before being wrongfooted by Dave Edwards' deflection off Peter Odemwingie's low shot after he cut inside Matt Jarvis after 35 minutes.
Wolves started the second half well and Fletcher was inches away from giving them the lead only for his shot to deflect just wide off Jonas Olsson. Hennessey then undid his good work by dropping Olsson's routine shot to give Albion a 64th-minute lead.
Wolves went close again when Ben Foster made a superb reflex save from Fletcher's towering header before a similar effort from Roger Johnson was headed onto the bar by Youssouf Mulumbu.
But in between, the alarm bells were beginning to ring loudly as Kevin Foley cleared off the line from Odemwingie.
But from then on, Wolves were simply crushed. More catastrophic defending allowed Odemwingie his second and Albion's third on 77 when he slid the ball home after
Liam Ridgewell's header and Olsson's backheel following James Morrison's corner. And everything that could have gone wrong did as old boy Keith Andrews drove home a fourth five minutes from time after Morrison skipped past Stephen Ward and crossed then Odemwingie completed his hat-trick from close range on 88 minutes.
McCarthy gambled by playing three strikers from the start and it left Wolves woefully exposed in midfield, where they couldn't keep the ball and were left chasing shadows.
If ever there was a game crying out for Karl Henry and Emmanuel Frimpong, then this was it.
But Wolves had to battle on without their two central midfielders.
These are testing times for the club and it's going to take more than the return of Henry to the ranks to rescue them this time. A lot of thinking is going to be done between now and the Newcastle game, a week on Saturday, to get this debacle out of their system.
And it's going to take a lot more than an apology from McCarthy.
By Tim Nash.
