To glance down Brentford’s injury list ahead of this match was to fear that Wolves might well enjoy their trip to the Gtech Community Stadium.
When Gary O’Neil’s side scored their second goal 11 seconds after Brentford had kicked off following the first, the absences of Ben Mee (suspension), Kristoffer Ajer (ankle injury), Aaron Hickey (thigh) and Rico Henry (ACL) took on a newfound significance.
This 4-1 win for Wolves left Brentford 14th in the table and was their fourth defeat in a row. Troubling might have been a fair way of describing this particular loss, had their defending for all four Wolves goals not been so disturbing.
Not a single Brentford player was alert to the late arrival of Mario Lemina, who came steaming into the box to pummel a header past Mark Flekken from Pablo Sarabia’s cross in the 13th minute.
The Bees went from no defending to defending so bad it actively helped Wolves out, just 80 seconds later, when Nathan Collins’s nightmarish under-hit pass allowed Hwang Hee-chan to nick the ball before it reached Flekken, round him, and tap into an empty net.
Two goals inside two minutes, so why not another just two minutes later? Yoane Wissa saw no good reason and so halved Brentford’s deficit when he stabbed past Jose Sa from Neal Maupay’s intelligently flicked pass.
Sensing the second half of a comeback was on its way, the home fans pushed Brentford on, and they were so close to equalising on 18 minutes when Keane Lewis-Potter crossed for Vitaly Janelt to nod straight at Sa.
That tame header cost Thomas Frank’s side dearly when Toti Gomes’s header to Hwang was deemed onside only because Ethan Pinnock was stood well behind the rest of the defence. Hwang skipped past Pinnock for good measure and crashed the ball past Flekken to make it 3-1.
The return to action off the bench of Mathias Jensen, following five games out with a adductor injury, was about as interesting as a rather more subdued second half got, until more woeful Brentford defending handed Wolves another free shot and another free goal.
Collins played another hideously weak pass, and Matheus Cunha nipped in before squaring for Jeanricner Bellegarde to catch Flekken at his front post.
4-1 Wolves, without them needing to work much for it. Six defeats in seven for Brentford. The January transfer window might just prove the late Christmas present they needed.
