Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Swansea City 1

Last updated : 28 October 2008 By Footymad Previewer
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake earned high-flying Wolves a sweet and quick revenge against Swansea City with a classy double at Molineux.

Wolves had been hammered 3-1 at Swansea earlier this month, but a goal in each half from Ebanks-Blake - taking his tally for the season to eight - secured victory this time for Mick McCarthy's side.

They made harder work of it than they should have done as Darren Pratley fired Swansea on to level terms in the 49th minute.

Mark Gower was inches away from a second equaliser when his 25-yard drive hit the bar after 61 minutes while Jordi Gomez forced an injury-time save out of Carl Ikeme.

Swansea had arrived at Wolves on the back of a five-match unbeaten run and will feel hard done by to lose that record after an improved second-half display.

They rode their luck to only be trailing 1-0 at half-time as Wolves should have been well in control before Ebanks-Blake struck with Chris Iwelumo wasting two golden chances, as well as being denied by the by the assistant referee.

Scotland international Iwelumo blazed over the bar from eight yards in the 10th minute after latching on to a poor punched clearance from Artur Krysiak following a David Jones corner.

He then saw a 14th minute effort disallowed for pushing Swansea captain Garry Monk.

Swansea were content to try and hit Wolves on the break and almost did that in the 20th minute when a neat pass from Federico Bessone picked out Gower, whose rising drive was tipped over the bar by Ikeme.

It was a rare moment of first-half menace from Swansea who had another lucky let-off after 28 minutes when Iwelumo again fired over the bar following a Carlos Edwards cross.

Fortunately for Wolves, Ebanks-Blake did know the way to goal and came up with a stunning piece of skill to break the deadlock on the stroke of half-time after being picked out by Iwelumo on the edge of the area.

The former Manchester United trainee looked to have run into trouble, but he bustled his way to the right-hand side of the area and beat Krysiak with a low drive.

If Wolves felt they could then cruise to a comfortable win they badly underestimated Swansea's resolve and paid the price only four minutes after the interval.

A poor pass from Jones put Wolves in trouble and from Bessone's left-wing cross, Pratley drove home his second goal of the season from 20 yards.

The goal energised Roberto Martinez's side, but they were level for only seven minutes thanks to the predatory instincts of Ebanks-Blake, who ghosted in at the near post to head home a Carlos Edwards cross.