Although they have had an excellent season, the name Middlesborough still doesn’t raise the pulse and get the nerves tingling in quite the same way as do Newcastle and Sunderland who hail from the same neck of the woods. However, a crowd of 28,000 proved that the Molineux faithful had a healthy respect for our visitors.

Dave Jones replaced Irwin with a ‘fit again’ Clyde; otherwise the team was unaltered from the Manchester City and Bolton games.

Following his antics at the Riverside, Danny Mills, as expected, was the recipient of verbal abuse everytime he touched the ball. Strangely enough he was heavily involved in the play in the early stages and I have to say he withstood the pressure very well.

With play fairly even early on, Wolves suddenly had two excellent scoring chances within a three minute period. Newton crossed to Kennedy who, although completely unmarked, headed tamely over the bar. Kennedy then returned the favour with a low cross from the left which found Newton, again completely unmarked but with only the goalkeeper to beat, he pulled it wide of the far post.

It was then Wolves turn to benefit from missed chances. Ehiogu headed over, unchallenged from a corner and following a complete mix-up in the Wolves defence, Nemeth shot wide when it looked easier to score.

Cort was proving to be a menace to Middlesborough’s defence and his strength, together with Camara’s pace was definitely unsettling the visitors back four.

Then, on the half hour wolves took the lead. A great cross from Clyde, who is proving to be a class act at full back and a super header from Carl Cort who rose above our friend Danny Mills, powered the ball home.

Middlesborough then pressured Wolves until half time but with some stout defending and a little bit of luck, the Wanderers held out.

The second half saw plenty of attacking play from both sides with goalmouth incidents a-plenty. One of the Wolves players that took the eye was Okorenkwo. For a big player he was very quick and seemed to be able to go into overdrive whenever the need arose. On the hour, Naylor took a long throw from the left: Cort cleverly flicked on and Camara scored spectacularly. Nothing simple and straightforward for our Senegalese hero; no – back to goal, scissor kick and the ball crashed in off the post.

Then in the dying minutes, Boateng brought down Alex Rae in the box and the referee awarded a penalty (Uriah Rennie please note). Still floating on a cloud of success Camara decided to take it himself. Almost predictably he missed with Schwarzer saving low on his right. Full time and we had won 2-0 – YES!

I read somewhere that Paul Ince had said that if the Wolves had started the season with the squad they have now, then they wouldn’t be in this position. That’s probably correct but hey – it’s not all over yet. If we can win at Birmingham next Sunday – who knows!

Let’s face it, some of the so called experts said we’d be down by Christmas. Well – four matches to go and we’re still there with a chance, slim though it might be.