If you’re struggling to score, with only one from open play so far, it seems that the ideal opponents are Wolverhampton Wanderers. The generosity of their defending helped us to claim three much-needed goals and points at Molineux, our third consecutive win at this venue.

Despite all the noise about our lack of creativity and penetration at the top end of the field, Daniel Farke opted to stick with the same eleven who began the match at Fulham, resisting the temptation to call on Harry Gray. But our latest wonderkid was on the bench, and perhaps his Premier League debut will come after his 17th birthday.

But even without him, we always looked likely to cut through a shaky home defence every time we came forward. Early on an excellent one-two set Gudmunsson up to send a dangerous ball across the face of goal, but nobody was there to turn it home. But after eight minutes it seemed as though it was the hosts who had finally got their season up and running.

A neat exchange of passes on the approach to our area found Rodon out of position, and Longstaff’s despairing lunge just failed to cut out the through ball from Gomez to Krejci. He was left with the simple task of turning it past Darlow from close range. But Leeds responded well to going behind, and eventually three goals came along in the final quarter hour of the first half.

On 31 minutes Bogle’s long cross from the right found Calvert-Lewin between the two Wolves central defenders, and with Sa stranded in no man’s land after coming out and then and changing his mind, our striker was able to send a looping header above him into the net. And we knew it really must be our day when we finally managed to score from a free kick, which we did eight minutes later.

Our inability at free kicks had been annoying me for some time, and I think for the first we converted since Gruev in the play-offs 17 months ago. As this one was awarded Krejci hilariously claimed he played the ball, which he did, but only after barging Calvert-Lewin over first! Stach sent it fiercely into the top corner of the side that Sa was supposed to be covering, but the keeper failed to get across in time.

And the third arrived just before the break. A terrible ball out from the back went straight to Stach, and with the Wolves defence out of position, the German had the simple task of playing Okafor in down the left. The winger still had plenty to do, but managed to shoot across Sa and into the far corner of the net.

By now the natives were revolting, as they booed their team off at half-time. I hadn’t expected Wolves to be down there this season after Vitor Pereira had turned them round so impressively after replacing the hapless Gary O’Neill last time, but the loss of a couple of key players has left him struggling to find a combination that works.

Pereira tried three substitutions at half-time, and although his reshaped team managed to force us back on the defence, they very rarely looked like getting back into the game. Perhaps their best effort came when a long cross from the right was nodded back to Munetsi, but thankfully the shot was pretty much straight at Darlow, and he was able to get down to make the save.

Then another promising Wolves move led to a series of passes on the edge of the area, but they took too long to get the shot away, and by the time Gomez pulled the trigger Longstaff was there to make the block. That took all the pace off the shot, and Darlow was able to gather it quite easily.

And at the other end we came close to extending the lead still further, after Stack sent Gudmundsson free down the left and the Swede went past the full-back as if he wasn’t there. But a defender in the centre got a vital touch to stop the cross falling nicely for Calvert-Lewin, and the ball was cleared.

In the end that didn’t matter, and we held on to what we had until the final whistle put Wolves out of their misery. And in Daniel Farke’s interview on Match of the Day he paid tribute to our strike-force. "Today we were more effective in both boxes, and scored three goals. I am pretty happy and delighted to have three precious points”.

“What I liked is at 1-0 down we stuck to our plans and our processes. We scored three fantastic goals. We know what Dominic Calvert-Lewin is capable of doing for us. We went for it after that goal. We dropped deeper in the second half and I would have preferred more possession but it was an important win for us. I liked that we showed steel in the second half”.

"We created many chances and shots in previous games but didn't have the cutting edge. It was a focus in training this week, but sometimes you just need an opener and it's a bit like a bottle of ketchup! I am pleased for the offensive players. Confidence is very important." And Calvert-Lewin himself said "Strikers feed off goals. It gives you confidence. For me getting that goal, it's nice to get my first one for the club and I'll look to build on it."

So is this the start of something big, or is it just that Wolves were terrible? My inner pessimist reminds me that our last two wins at Wolves didn’t save us from having to survive on the final day of one season, before being relegated the next. But with three of our summer signings getting their first goals for the club, this had the feel of a turnaround game after our struggles in front of goal so far.

So perhaps we can now live in hope that our strike force have now found a bit of form and can now take us to safety by the end of the season.

Reuters

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