Stoke 0 Wolves 2 - five talking points from FA Cup win

They hadn't won an FA Cup game for six years but goals from Helder Costa and Matt Doherty saw Paul Lambert's team send their 4,600 fans home very happy indeed.

Wolves were great value for the shock victory.

But who made the difference for Lambert's side? And can they now go on a cup run?

Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers picks out five talking points.

Cup drought over

Wolves have a long and rich tradition in this competition. They've won it four times which is, believe it or not national media types, even more than the likes of West Ham United (3) and Leeds United (1).

The majority of Wolves fans have been brought up either on tales of the 1949 and 1960 victories, runs to the semi-finals in 1979 and 1981 (an attendance of 40,524 for a sixth round replay win at home to Middlesbrough that year hasn't been bettered at Molineux since) or even a very respectable record in the 1990s when Sir Jack made the competition his personal priority and Wolves reached two quarter finals and one semi final in the space of five seasons.

But of late Wolves' FA Cup record hasn't exactly been one full of magic and romance, to use those well-worn FA Cup cliches.

In fact Wolves' recent FA Cup dalliances have been about as romantic as a weekend away in Rowley Regis.

Remarkably, this was their first victory in the famous old competition since 2011, when they beat Doncaster 5-0 in a third-round replay.

And causing cup upsets? Forget about it. It's been 14 years since they beat a team in a higher division.

That particular occasion was one of the most memorable in the club's recent history, when they downed the giant that was Bobby Robson's Newcastle United, Alan Shearer et al, with a 3-2 thriller at Molineux.

While Saturday's victory won't quite be held in as high a regard, it was a day that those 4,600 travelling hordes won't forget in a hurry.

It was also, arguably, Wolves' most impressive team performance since the 2014/15 season.

Where there's a Williamson, there's a way

Mike Williamson's last Wolves appearance came 406 days earlier. Wolves kept a clean sheet in that game too.

Many will have doubted whether he'd ever play for the club again...how they have missed the 33-year-old's experience.

Williamson, born in Stoke-on-Trent, was majestic, but it was his organisation of the back four that impressed the most.

He admitted after the game that he'll feel a bit stiff today. Given how much pointing and flailing Williamson did, you wonder if it's arms that need resting more than anything.

Williamson was in constant dialogue with Kortney Hause and it was no coincidence that the youngster had by far his best game of the season.

It was a similar situation when the former Newcastle man partnered up with Danny Batth during last season's loan spell - and the pair combined to help earn three clean sheets in five matches.

After more than 13 months out expectations of Williamson lining up week after week should be tempered. But if he can be nursed through the coming weeks this performance hinted he could become a vital cog in the Wolves defence between now and May.

Wolves have been crying out for leadership and nous for the past 18 months and Williamson ticks both those boxes.

Another one for the future

At the other end of the age scale to Williamson was Morgan Gibbs-White who became one the club's youngest ever players, aged 16 years and 347 days.

When the fourth official put his board up on 61 minutes, with Wolves 1-0 up, you would have put good money on David Edwards or Jack Price being introduced to steady the ship.

But Lambert showed huge faith - as well as a lot of guts - to chuck Gibbs-White in at the deep end.

And the teenager rewarded his boss, displaying the confidence, touch and composure that fellow youngsters Connor Ronan and Bright Enobakhare have in recent weeks.

Gibbs-White replaced Joe Mason on the left side of midfield but he's also played centrally and as a striker for the under-23s.

He's also been pinpointed as the shiniest gem of the current emerging academy crop.

These guys don't look out of place. The challenge for them all now is to earn regular places in the matchday 18, but they all look to possess the talent - and more importantly the temperament and mental strength - to make the jump from under-23s to Championship football.

As an aside, it doesn't say much for the futures of Prince Oniangue and Joao Teixeira, to name just two, that they didn't feature here.

Lambert said he'd be ruthless in the trimming of his squad and we can expect a few high-profile departures in the coming weeks.

Next round?

Yet despite all this positivity, when the teams were announced many feared the worst. Even Paul Lambert admitted he thought he may have made too many changes – six to Stoke's four.

Mark Hughes brought in several high-profile attacking players to give the impression of – as one press box wag dubbed it – a Harlem Globetrotters team.

But from the off Wolves played without fear.

They took the game to Stoke, their 4-2-3-1 formation again added balance and discipline to the side and, yes, they rode their luck a bit, but they were well deserving of the margin of victory.

So is this the start of a cup run? The luck comes with the draw and, looking at the bigger picture, as nice as it would be to be paired with a big Premier League team at home Wolves may prefer an easier tie - on paper - against lower league opposition.

The aforementioned Newcastle win back in 2003 was a catalyst for a successful promotion charge. This season, though, Wolves surely have too much to do to replicate that, being 13 points off the top six.

The chances are that, come March, their season will be all-but over.

How nice it would be, then, to embark on a thrilling cup run to really give Wolves something to play for in the coming weeks and months.

Something stirring

When Sheffield Wednesday cut through Wolves' defence in the first half of their 2-0 win at Molineux in November, it felt like the club was on its knees.

Contrast that with the wonderful and genuinely spine-tingling scenes witnessed during and after Saturday's stunning success.

Lambert has, in the space of a couple of months, transformed the feeling of the place.

Players are playing with confidence and freedom. They've mustered 55 shots in their past four matches and kept three clean sheets in successive away trips. Lambert, who now has a number of welcome selection dilemmas to contend with for Saturday's visit of Villa, has made an impressive start to life in the Molineux hot seat.

There's an awful lot of work still to be done, on and off the field. But momentum is building.

Something is stirring in WV1, of that there is no doubt.