Classic match report - Wolves 4 Man City 1, 1999

Before they became the richest club in the world City were one of English football's great underachievers, winning a couple of League Cups but nothing else for the best part of four decades.

All that ended with their last-gasp title triumph in 2012 and City will now be out of Wolves' reach for many years to come.

Rewind to the 1999/2000 season though and it was a different story.

City won promotion from the old First Division that season but Wolves did the double over Joe Royle's team in finishing seventh, an agonising two points off the play-offs.

Robbie Keane's goal was the difference on the opening day of the campaign - his penultimate strike in gold and black before Coventry City came calling for £6m.

Replacements for Keane, and Steve Bull who had retired the previous summer, were not, it's safe to say, of the quality of the two men who had departed.

In fact the years 1999 to 2001, before Wolves were spoiled by the goals of Kenny Miller, Dean Sturridge, Nathan Blake and George Ndah, were barren ones for strikers.

Keane's direct replacement Ade Akinbiyi scored 16 and was then sold to Leicester City, with Wolves short of cash.

But elsewhere in both 1999/2000 and 2000/01, goals were in short supply.

An injury-hampered Ndah scored six, Adam Proudlock eight, Havard Flo four and Colin Larkin and Cedric Roussel precisely none between them.

Another to fire blanks was Robert Taylor, who coincidentally made his Manchester City debut in this game (Wolves bought him for £1.5m at the end of the season and he never scored a league goal in gold and black, before being released on a free in 2002).

In fact, the only man apart from Akinbiyi to reach double figures over the two seasons combined was Michael Branch.

Two of them came on his home debut against City, in what was a night full of promise at Molineux on a Friday night in front on the TV cameras.

Everton prodigy Branch's story is ultimately a tragic one - he played his last professional game aged just 27 and in 2012 was jailed for seven years after being caught with £160,000 worth of cocaine.

It's a heartbreaking fall from grace, and it makes that night against City all the more poignant, for it showed what could have been for both Branch and Wolves.

Manager Colin Lee described it as 'the most satisfying performance since I took over as manager'.

"Every player performed to a high standard," he said.

"We were determined to show that we can be an attacking force and I think we have proved that.

Wolves didn't show it often enough, ultimately, but their supporters could dare to dream that night.

Wolves 4 Manchester City 1, December 3, 1999

Wolves blew away a lot of doubts about their ability to make a serious impression on this season's First Division with easily their best performance of the season at Molineux last night.

The 'team who can't score goals' went crackers as top-of-the-table Manchester City wilted in the face of a golden landslide.

Winning games is always nice, beating someone really good is better, but to do it by three goals is a real cause for cracking open a bottle of something warm and satisfying.

There has always been a tendency in Wolverhampton to over-react to results. Victories are always great triumphs and defeats dismal disasters.

This win – impressive as it is – does not mean we should automatically expect a surge into the promotion battle from Wolves, but the nature of the victory is a landmark in the steady progress that the club are making under Colin Lee.

Since then Lee has moulded a side who have withstood the loss of Steve Bull, Robbie Keane and Dean Richards and now play with a plan and purpose that has been missing for a long time.

Wolves have made a habit of winning hard games, but consistency is now the key and the trick is to turn on this kind of form when teams like Crewe and Stockport are the opposition.

This was Lee's 50th game in charge at Molineux and it was almost as if they players had clubbed together and decided to give the boss a special present.

This was the first time Wolves have scored more than three goals since Lee's first game in charge – the 6-1 win at Bristol City last season – and made a mockery of their previous record of only 18 in their previous 19 league matches.

Lee certainly couldn't have been happier as he watched his side provide the perfect reaction to last week's deeply unsatisfactory defeat at Tranmere.

Two goals from Michael Branch on his home debut and ten-out-of-ten ratings for most members of the team was surely even better than the manager would have hoped for.

In the aftermath of the setback at Prenton Park, Lee and assistant John Ward got down to some hard work with the players on the training ground and devised a plan to beat City.

To say that it worked would be something of an understatement. Visiting manager Joe Royle was so bitterly disappointed he stormed straight out of Molineux with barely a comment and the team coach was heading for the M6 as quickly as speed limits allowed.

"I'm surprised Wolves haven't scored more goals this season and I certainly hope they don't change that against us," was what Royle said before the game. He must have wished he had kept quiet. I doubt if much of what he said in private to his players afterwards would be printable in a family newspaper.

Lee was helped by the fact that he could choose what must be pretty close to his first choice starting line-up.

The team certainly looked the part. There was a balance and all-round strength that City just couldn't match.

Wolves' strength was grounded not only on their new-found scoring confidence, but a cracking defensive display by Keith Curle and Ludovic Pollet, the Frenchman underlining his class with a faultless performance.

Curle just can't get enough of playing against City and he and Pollet kept City's new £1.5m striker Robert Taylor at arms length.

Wolves were up and at 'em right from the start, Branch sending a header just wide after 30 seconds and it wasn't long before Wolves were in front as Ade Akinbiyi made the most of hesitation in the City defence to head in from close range.

The visitors' back-line were all over the place. They never got to grips with the pace of Akinbiyi or Branch and the second goal was no surprise as Branch moved unhindered across the face of the penalty area.

Before that, City new boy Robert Taylor had thundered a shot against the bar but it was a rare threat.

City, who had not previously been beaten by more than the odd goal this season, pulled one back when Mark Kennedy fired a cracking cross into the goal area which proved just too pacy for the Wolves defence and allowed Shaun Goater to shove it in from close range.

That was just about all we saw of Kennedy – a left-foot drive in the last minute apart – as he was hustled out of the game by Wolves pair Kevin Muscat and Darren Bazeley and Branch added No3 five minutes before the break to choruses of 'sign him up' from the Wolves fans.

Andy Sinton had been a demon on the left in the first half, but Muscat and Bazeley made the right flank their own, establishing such dominance in the second half that City's Danny Granville was replaced by the equally ineffective left-back Danny Tiatto.

Muscat even had time and space to charge into the penalty area to grab Wolves' last goal.

A ripple of a Mexican wave ran around Molineux where the supporters have not know such delight for many months.

Wolves: Oakes; Muscat, Curle, Pollet, Naylor; Bazeley, Emblen, Osborn, Sinton (Scott Taylor 90+1); Branch (Corica, 84), Akinbiyi. Subs: Stowell, Robinson, Sedgley.

Goals: Akinbiyi (6), Branch (19, 40), Muscat (68)

Manchester City: Weaver; Edghill, Wiekens, Jobson, Granville (Tiatto, 55); Jeff Whitley (Pollock, 55), Horlock, Bishop, Kennedy; Goater, Robert Taylor. Subs: Crooks, Gareth Taylor, Wright.

Goal: Goater (30)

Attendance: 21,635