Match report by Martin Swain

Wolves and Birmingham City served up a derby that offered the chasing pack little hope either is about to crack in the Championship promotion race.

A game which could have been sliced in neat halves, the first coloured blue and the second shaded in gold, underlined the merits of the teams’ dual domination of the top of the table.

A point apiece may have been the result which best suited the clubs jostling for position outside of the automatic promotion places as it prevented one or the other escaping their range still further.

But the quality of Blues’ first half authority and the vigour of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ second half comeback not only made for a rousing spectacle but gave the rest of the division a glimpse of the substance behind this West Midlands pincer move on promotion.

Up to the point where Cameron Jerome fired the visitors in front after 48 minutes, Blues at last looked like the team they are expected to be – strong, composed, assured and menacing.

But in one of those curious features of football, it was Wolves who re-discovered themselves from that point of adversity, going on to mount a thrilling revival which drew a deserved equaliser from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake before they closed the afternoon banging noisly on the door of Maik Taylor’s goal.

Yes, a good day for both teams, a good day for both managers. Especially Mick McCarthy, whose second-half substitutions and switches helped attach jump leads to a team engine that had been mis-firing.

Highly satisfying

Coming on the heels of McCarthy having to think on his feet – or should that be foot? – to negotiate a safe passage through the carnage of Bramall Lane, it surely climaxed a highly-satisfying week for the Molineux manager.

And he will not under value his point. This was a Blues team which started with all but David Murphy able to claim Premier League experience; in a reverse image, only Michael Gray could do the same in a Wolves team now wholly dependent on the largely young and raw recruits McCarthy was asked to seek and recruit when he took the job in 2006.Ê

They are growing with every game and this past week can only have continued to banish any secret doubts they still foster about either the merits of their big lead at the top of the division or their ability to last the course.

Wolves are surely certain to meet with some rocky periods between now and May – it would be foolishly optimistic to think otherwise. But having fought their way through Sheffield United’s aerial bombardment in midweek, the manner in which these Premier League Wannabes wrestled control from Alex McLeish’s Premier League Used-to-bes can only sustain them when the going gets tough.

Never mind the FA Cup ingredient tossed in by yesterday’s third round draw. It’s a promotion double for the West Midlands we all want and after this little contest . . . why not?