Liam Keen analysis: Woeful Wolves dash any faint hope of Christmas miracle

When Rob Edwards first arrived, he will have targeted Brentford at home as a winnable game that could have helped him pull off the Great Escape.

But at no point on Saturday afternoon did Wolves look like winning the game, against a rather poor Brentford team.

Considering the performance Brentford put in, it is highly likely that no other team in the Premier League would have lost to them at home on this occasion. But Wolves managed it.

No-one has given Wolves any chance of staying up for some time now, but this latest defeat which stretches the losing run to 10 league games essentially wipes away any faint hope of a miracle.

On a day when fans protested in the 18th and 77th minutes with printed cards, Wolves needed to get them on side quickly.

But what we witnessed was a remarkably passive performance with no grit, determination, quality or attacking intent.

Most of the match was pretty boring as a contest and Wolves' game plan was completely wrong.

It is absolutely true that they are a wounded side and protecting them is understandable, but not even trying to have a go at Brentford and play fearlessly was the wrong move.

What did Wolves have to lose? They've already lost enough football games, why did they not go for it, play with some passion and go for it?

Instead we had to endure a turgid first half with little of note to discuss. 

The second half was more interesting, but still does not make good reading from a Wolves perspective.

The opening goal was an awful one to concede and summed up Wolves' season.

A hopeful punt into the box from deep in midfield seemed so easy to deal with but Ladislav Krejci completely missed the flight of the ball and it was an easy finish for Keane Lewis-Potter.

His second killed the game off and came from Wolves' poor play at retaining the ball in midfield, failing to track runners and do any of the basics right.

Both instances frustrated Edwards too.

He said: "Building on the performance from last week, we didn't want to make massive changes to the plan.

"I don't think there was any major threat in the first half. All six of our games so far have been level at half-time, so there wasn't too much to correct.

"We thought we could be a little bit more aggressive in certain areas, we conceded a couple of chances on crosses, we talked about we need to be a bit more aggressive in a couple of areas and we tried to adjust.

"The goal came from a position where we should never, ever concede from.

"We've gifted that. We've self-imploded in that moment with some really poor defending and then from there, at 1-0 down, it's very, very difficult again because it creates all the noise around and the boys feel that pressure.

"Even with the second goal, the bodies are there to be able to deal with it and we just don't deal with a basic cross into the box, we switch off and don't track him.

"It's really frustrating the way we conceded.

"From a plan where we didn't want to give much away and we felt we could grow into the game and in the 63rd minute, we're in the same old position where around that period of time we've conceded the first goal.

"It seems like there's always that one big mistake that's around the corner at the moment.

"It's incredibly frustrating."

The fans booed the players, told them they were 'not fit to wear the shirt' and showed their disdain.

That only got worse when Jorgen Strand Larsen's dire penalty was easily saved.

But aside from that, they went through the repertoire of old songs from a period when Wolves were once competitive in the Premier League.

They feel a million miles away from that right now and are on track to be one of the worst teams to ever play in the Premier League and one of the worst ever Wolves sides. The sad thing is that their only motivation now will be to avoid those unwanted records and restore some pride, because hopes of surviving have been dashed.

Molineux is a shell of itself, with plenty of empty seats and disgruntled fans sitting out in the cold to watch a team that cannot do the basics.

When asked about the difficulty of playing at home, Edwards added: "It does feel it is different here to away from home at the moment, so it will affect them.

"But they've got to try and not let it. It's easier said than done."

Fair to say, a pretty uninspiring and short answer to a key question.