Former West Brom and Wolves striker surprised by derby 'gulf'

Goodman, who made more than 150 appearances for both clubs, reckons Wolves’ 1-0 victory can now be a catalyst for the rest of the season as they hunt promotion back to the Premier League.

Fer Lopez scored the only goal of the match at Molineux but despite the narrow margin of victory, home keeper Jose Sa was not seriously tested while opposite number Max O’Leary pulled off several impressive saves.

Goodman, who was commentating on the match for Sky Sports, admitted he had arrived expecting the match to be “more of a contest”.

He explained: “Wolves' form had been a little bit hit and miss in terms of performances, despite the results being good.

“Whereas West Bromwich Albion, by contrast, had probably delivered more impressive performances than Wolves had up until that point.

“On the day quality told. I think player for player, Wolves have got a better squad. They've got more depth, they've got more Premier League experience, and that seemed to shine through really in this game.

“For West Brom, I don't know whether it was the occasion for one or two of the younger players, but they just didn't really turn up, and they couldn't really cope with the quality that Wolves had in those forward areas.

“If it wasn't for Max O'Leary, it would have been a more emphatic win.

“Even though it was only 1-0, it still felt really comfortable because West Brom barely created a meaningful chance or barely had a shot at goal.

“So, it was a bad day at the office for them. But I must admit, I was surprised at the gulf on the day.”

Victory lifted Wolves above Albion on goal difference to fourth in the Championship table, three points behind leaders West Ham with a match in hand.

Goodman believes the win could prove a significant one early in the reign of new boss Cesar Peixoto.

The Portuguese is managing in England for the first time after replacing Rob Edwards in the summer.

Goodman said: “Obviously he's not particularly well known on these shores, and so with that comes an element of doubt.

“Even a great like Arsène Wenger had to win people over when he was appointed at Arsenal and nobody had heard of him because he'd been managing in Japan and so on and so forth.

“There's no doubt winning games of football buys you time and lifts your popularity.

“Another manager that we didn't know too much about when he arrived on these shores ironically was at Wolves in Nuno Espírito Santo. He was exactly the same when he came in.

“Statistically, this season Wolves have the same number of points as they did when Nuno's team won the Championship title in 2017-18.

“So, he's doing okay, you can't really knock the start to the season that they've had.

“I do think Wolves will improve, and maybe that performance in the Black Country Derby can be the catalyst where they can produce more consistent performances.

“Performances where they're dominating teams like they did against West Brom a little bit more, because I hadn't really seen too much of that over the course of 90 minutes so far.

“So, I think when you're analysing his start. When you look at where they are in the table with the game in hand, you have to say it's been a very, very decent start.”

Don Goodman was speaking to Betway.