Matt Maher analysis: An ugly match which will be remembered for a beautiful Wolves finish

Life does not work that way. Those experiences on the long road to recovery from the serious knee injury sustained just 43 minutes into his Molineux career now form part of the Austria international’s make-up.

But Saturday’s goal at Goodison Park did represent a new beginning. In more ways than one, as Kalajdzic later confirmed his thumb in the mouth, ball up the shirt celebration signified he and fiancee Lorena Grabovac are expecting their first child.

For head coach Gary O’Neil, meanwhile, the goal and the result represented a start. After two defeats, his tenure has lift-off and while this might not have been a performance to convince anyone Wolves are a team shooting toward the stars, the result brought some much-needed cheer ahead of a week which will inevitably be dominated by the transfer window and which moves will and won’t be made up to Friday’s deadline.

For much of the afternoon, it looked as though the visitors would be taking home only a point, an outcome which might have been seen as unsatisfactory prior to kick-off but could have been claimed as fortunate on the balance of a match Everton largely had the better of.

But then along came Kalajdzic, to snatch all three. The 26-year-old had only been on the pitch for two minutes when he moved into the box, got in front of James Tarkowski and helped Pedro Neto’s pinpoint cross on its way into the bottom corner of the net. Replays suggested the contact was not so clean as it appeared on first viewing, the final touch coming off either Kalajdzic’s shoulder or even his back. Yet neither he, his team-mates, O’Neil nor the 3,000 or so travelling supporters had any reason to care.

Amid all the euphoria of his maiden Wolves goal, it would remain wise not to expect too much from the striker, too soon. He is still some way short of fully firing. It may yet be several months before he is properly up to speed. The severity of the injury which he is effectively still recovering from should not be ignored.

Yet in the 20 or so minutes he has played this season, both here and previously in the 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, he has undoubtedly made an impact. It was Kalajdzic, don’t forget, who was clobbered by United keeper Andre Onana in the final moments of a match where Wolves were deserving of at least a point. Those observers who claimed they were fortunate winners on Saturday – and to be fair, you could make a good argument – might reflect on this being a case of luck evening itself out.

Without Kalajdzic’s heroics, more of the post-match focus would have fallen on another Wolves striker. For Fabio Silva, this was another case of what might have been, his afternoon mirroring that against Brighton a week previously where he converted a chance from an offside position but missed a golden one which would have counted when he side footed wide with only a retreating Jordan Pickford to beat. That followed a first half where Silva had struggled to have any say in proceedings. The season remains young but Wolves, not blessed with an array of attacking options, really do need the £35million forward to start delivering soon.

In Silva’s defence, he was hardly the only Wolves attacker on the periphery at Goodison Park. Neto redeemed a rather nondescript performance with a superb cross for the goal but there was little of note from Matheus Cunha, while Hwang Hee-chan was forced off at half-time with a hamstring injury. Of all three matches O’Neil has taken charge so far, this was the least cohesive attacking performance.

Instead, the result owed much to Wolves’ doggedness in defence and while they will face much more ruthless attacks than Everton’s in the week’s ahead, perhaps some of the questions about their mentality which surfaced after the 4-1 defeat to Brighton were answered here.

It helps when Jose Sa pulls off the kind of wonder save which prevented Abdoulaye Doucoure from opening the scoring midway through the second half. The Portugal international also denied Arnaut Danjuma in the first half and was able to push the ball away from Jarrad Branthwaite just as the defender was about to convert from close range. Admittedly, Tarkowski still should have scored but having forced the chance to a more acute angle, you might say Sa had earned the luck.

Wolves earned the chance to win the match by hanging around and while it might not have particularly on the eye, it was effective. They’ll need to get better but in a contest which felt as important as any can just a fortnight into the campaign, they found their way to victory.