Kuqi strikes twice to put brakes on Wolves

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Sheffield Wednesday

When these teams contrived an identical scoreline on the fateful final day of last season, the result provoked recrimination in the Wolves camp over the failure to clinch promotion that had once looked certain and relief on Wednesday's part on avoiding relegation. Last night's reunion left the rival managers, Dave Jones and Terry Yorath, less sure of their emotional response.

Jones, who must have expected Wolves to build on Saturday's demolition of Derby with a victory that would have dislodged Portsmouth at the First Division summit, instead saw his side forced to come from behind to equalise twice through Nathan Blake and Dean Sturridge. "We didn't play particularly well," he said, "but it was a good sign that we kept battling back." He added, somewhat unconvincingly: "The important thing was not to lose."

Yorath, meanwhile, may have feared the worst given Wednesday's one point from four games before last night. Another defeat, allied to a Burnley win at Reading, would have left them bottom, a sorry position from which to prepare for Sunday's steel-city derby. In the event, his players did him proud, especially Finnish striker Shefki Kuqi, who collected his first goals since scoring against Wolves in May.

Yet the Wednesday manager could not disguise his frustration after the clubs' eighth stalemate in nine meetings. "They weren't clever goals that Wolves scored," he reflected. "They came from basic crosses and I'm disappointed that we couldn't deal with them." Also confounding expectations, his Wolves counterpart put any annoyance behind him to single out Kuqi's contribution. "He was the best attacker and defender on the pitch," said Jones. "He was everywhere. How long he can keep that up, God only knows."

Curiously, Kuqi might have been part of his inheritance from Colin Lee, having had a trial at Molineux before joining Stockport and later Wednesday. Broad-chested and muscular, his ruthless finishing and lung-bursting endeavour were the highlights of a contest which could have gone any one of three ways right to the end.

Wednesday went ahead after nine minutes. Sibon's angled through-ball found Kuqi racing clear to shoot Michael Oakes. Despite the efforts of Alex Rae, Wolves missed the drive of Paul Ince and created only one chance before the break, Ivar Ingimarsson heading wastefully wide from Denis Irwin's 22nd-minute corner.

Three goals in eight minutes completed the scoring. Wolves drew level when Blake rose unchallenged to convert Shaun Newton's 60th-minute centre, only for Wednesday to regain the lead three minutes later when Kuqi met Leon Knight's cross with a glancing header.

Once again, however, Wolves exploited slack defending, Sturridge climbing to nod his first goal this season from Joleon Lescott's pass. Yorath later described them as "the best side I've seen this season", but his own were at least their equals and Jones will know that Wolves can, must, do better.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-4-2): Oakes; Irwin, Butler, Lescott, Naylor; Newton (Miller, 86), Rae, Ingimarsson, Cooper; Sturridge, Blake. Substitutes not used: Pollet, Connelly, Proudlock, Murray (gk).

Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Pressman; Geary, Westwood, Bromby, Burrows; Knight, McLaren, Soltvedt, Armstrong; Sibon, Kuqi. Substitutes not used: Hendon, Maddix, Donnelly, Hamshaw, Evans (gk).

Referee: M Pike (Barrow-in-Furness).