Wolves failed to earn a priceless first Premier League victory of the season after letting in a late equaliser against Brighton, drawing 1-1 and seeing their top-flight run against the Seagulls without a victory stretch to eight matches (D3, L5).
The contest started scrappily, with arguably the biggest potential opening in the first 10 minutes coming when Jan Paul van Hecke’s attempted clearance hit Joao Gomes and was collected by Marshall Munetsi, who fed Hwang Hee-chan, but the South Korean elected not to shoot and couldn’t pick out Jorgen Strand Larsen either.
Wolves then received a red card, but it was given to their head coach rather than any of their players, seemingly following Vitor Pereira’s reaction to the non-award of a free-kick to the hosts.
He may not have got to his new vantage point by the time that his side took the lead, as seconds later, a Jhon Arias delivery was flicked on by Strand Larsen and not sufficiently headed away by Danny Welbeck, with Munetsi following up with a wonderful volley that was pushed onto the bar by Bart Verbruggen, which unfortunately for the Dutchman, then went in off his back.
Moments afterwards, Verbruggen was forced to keep out Ladislav Krejci’s header, while at the other end, Jackson Tchatchoua’s underhit pass to Sam Johnstone was almost capitalised on by Brajan Gruda.
Fabian Hurzeler opted to make a change at half-time, bringing on Georginio Rutter for the out-of-sorts Carlos Baleba.
However, it was Wolves who had the first big chance of the second half, with Arias wastefully firing over from Hugo Bueno’s cutback.
Johnstone was duly called on to make a phenomenal save as he just managed to paw away Rutter’s effort from Yankuba Minteh’s cross.
To shore things up defensively, Emmanuel Agbadou was sent on for Wolves in place of Hwang, but the West Midlanders’ approach seemed to be inviting more pressure, even if Brighton were not making the most of the possession that they had.
Against the run of play, Strand Larsen struck a post as Molineux groaned, and that moment proved pivotal, as Wolves switched off from a short corner late on, with Van Hecke heading home from substitute Maxim De Cuyper’s cross.
The result means that Brighton are now on a four-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W2, D2) as they sit 12th ahead of Brentford against Manchester City, while Wolves stew after letting in another late goal, having been pegged back by Tottenham last weekend.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ladislav Krejci (Wolves)
