Football: Wolves' revenge: One-sided Black Country rivalry

Wolverhampton Wanderers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

West Bromwich Albion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

REVENGE was sweet for Wolves at a packed and seething Molineux yesterday. The six points their Black Country neighbours took off them last season kept Wolves out of the play-offs and Albion in the division only on goals scored.

This was a 2-0 massacre if ever there was one as Molineux enjoyed the best performance of Graham Taylor's reign. It moved them level on points with second-placed Millwall.

In the continued absence of Steve Bull and Tony Daley, Taylor used the former Millwall centre-half Neil Emblen in front of the back four, which had the effect of releasing both Darren Ferguson and Geoff Thomas for more creative work. The result was that it quickly became a question of when and how many Wolves would score.

The one aberration by Albion's best player, Daryl Burgess, produced the first when his tug and pull on David Kelly gave a first-half penalty to Andy Thompson. Paul Blades flipped on a near-post corner to give Kelly an easy finish for the second goal.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-1-4-1): Stowell; Smith, Blades, Shirtliff, Thompson; Emblen (Venus 84); Birch, Ferguson, Thomas, Froggatt; Kelly. Substitutes not used: Rankine, Jones (gk).

West Bromwich Albion (4-1-2-1-2): Naylor; Parsley, Herbert, Burgess, Darton; Phelan; McNally (Ashcroft, 75), Hamilton; Donovan; Heggs (Mellon 75), Taylor. Substitute not used: Lange (gk).

Referee: P Alcock (Redhill, Surrey).