SOUTHAMPTON 1 WOLVES 2

This was a splendidly entertaining game which reflected great credit on both teams, but perhaps didn't tell us much that we didn't already know. When Wolves led 2-0 inside 18 minutes and had a third dubiously disallowed immediately afterwards, they threatened to run riot; Southampton soon scored and spent much of the rest of the match pushing gamely for an equaliser, despite having Jason Euell sent off before half-time. It was an admirable effort from the home club, struggling in the table and on the balance sheet and with a team made up almost entirely of youngsters. But they attempted to match Wolves for quality of football, making this an unusual but refreshing Championship fixture, and at times even a man short they were in charge, though Wolves also missed chances in the second half to widen their margin of victory.

MANCIENNE STARS AGAIN
Michael Mancienne was Wolves' star performer once again. It might be unkind to the others to say he held Wolves together in the second half, though he was an important stabilising influence when they were under most pressure and made a number of late interventions with style and without fuss, as the very best do. Several others demonstrated the things they do best - Chris Iwelumo scored with a header and bullied the Southampton defence in the first half-hour, David Jones burst forward from midfield and scored a goal with a deft touch, Michael Kightly popped up in lots of unlikely places, and so on. But they all had to work very hard to make sure of the win, probably much harder than anybody thought they would have to at 3.20pm.

ANOTHER GREAT RUN
Before Wolves play again, I will have to look up a statistic - have they ever previously managed two winning runs of five League matches or more in the same season? Perhaps in the distant past. I will be ploughing through the record books unless someone here happens to know....

MICK McCARTHY: AN APOLOGY
Sorry, Mick. Hopping around the technical area on your crutches, from a distance you cut a vaguely comical figure, brandishing a stick to illuminate your points to the players, not letting your recent ankle operation and the resulting plastic boot guarding your left foot get in the way of your usual energetic display on the sidelines. I was a little concerned that a sliding tackle near the touchline might have taken you with it as you weren't so mobile as normal, and it crossed my mind that you looked a bit like Barnsley's answer to Franz Klammer when crouching on your poles. But I wouldn't have been so flippant if I'd realised the amount of discomfort you were putting yourself through to do that: should anyone doubt your commitment to the cause, let me tell them that when you came out to meet the media after the game, you were clearly very sore indeed from bouncing around on one leg for 90 minutes. I hope it's feeling better soon, Mick. I gather someone at Molineux had built you a little podium of some kind to lean on for the last home game. It might be worth somebody chucking that on the coach for the trip to Bramall Lane a week on Tuesday. Let me tell you folks, it's not just the players prepared to go in where it hurts to try to win this league for Wolves.