Blues v Wolves: Memorable derby wins

In recent years, clashes with Villa have been few and far between, but the opposite is true of Blues, whom Wolves have met 41 times since 1990 (compared with just 12 for Villa and 31 for Albion).

Historically, Wolves have enjoyed this fixture far more than the other two derbies, winning 65 matches compared to Blues’ 41.

Their record against Albion (53 wins to their 64) and Villa (39 wins to Villa’s 53) isn’t as flattering.

And St Andrew’s has been a happy hunting ground of late, too.

Since 1996/97, Wolves have won seven and drawn five of their 17 short trips to the Second City.

The first of that sequence came in March 1997 when Steve Bull who, like Wolves, enjoyed a better record against Blues than Albion, netted inside the first minute before his partner in crime Don Goodman doubled the lead in a 2-1 victory for Mark McGhee’s men, who won 12 of their 23 away games that season.

Another highlight in recent seasons was a then-crucial win in April 2013.

Wolves were deep in relegation trouble having endured a nightmare run of 12 games without a win under Stale Solbakken and then Dean Saunders.

Four wins in five raised hopes of survival and the last of those was a 3-2 victory at St Andrew’s when Saunders’ side raced into a three-goal lead by half-time.

Stephen Hunt opened the scoring and then Sylvan Ebanks-Blake scored twice, including from the penalty spot.

Blues would pull two back through Wade Elliott, but Wolves held on. However, this was as good as it got for Saunders.

In the second half, a foul by Paul Robinson on Ebanks-Blake put the in-form striker out for the rest of the season – he would never play for Wolves again and they lost five of their next six matches to end up relegated to League One.

If that was Saunders’ brief finest hour, then the same could be said of last season’s visit to Blues for Walter Zenga.

He didn’t enjoy many victories in his brief Wolves tenure, but a 3-1 success – coming from 1-0 down at half-time – saw Wolves play some scintillating football and score two cracking goals via Joe Mason and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, with Danny Batth adding the other.

It led to goosebump-inducing scenes at full-time – the Bodclap was in full flow and a delirious Zenga got on his knees and bowed down to the away end.

There wasn’t quite the same hero worship for Darren Roberts in 1992 – mostly because no-one knew who he was.

Roberts, a Brummie and a Villa fan, was making his Wolves debut after being plucked from non-league obscurity.

What followed was football’s equivalent of a huge one-hit wonder. Roberts became Wolves’ very own Whigfield, scoring a hat-trick in a 4-0 win before disappearing back to non-league almost as quickly as he’d arrived.

To top it off, his feats were screened live on ITV Central.

Also given TV prominence via national highlights was a memorable 3-0 win in 1981.

Wolves hadn’t scored away from home in five games, but coasted to victory with goals from Colin Brazier, Andy Gray and John Richards, one of only 10 wins that campaign.

Two seasons ago goals from Dave Edwards and Liverpool loanee Sheyi Ojo gave Kenny Jackett's team a 2-0 win – a rare highlight in an indifferent 2015/16 campaign.

Wolves have now won two in a row at St Andrew’s and another one on Monday will only take them halfway to their best sequence of six between 1957 and 1963, the highlight of which was a 5-1 thrashing in 1957 when Eddie Clamp (two), Norman Deeley, Jimmy Murray and Dennis Wilshaw were on target in front of 43,005, a win that helped Wolves towards their second ever league title.

Over to you, Nuno.