Wolves quickly banished any worries that they are about to cave in with this impressive FA Cup defeat of promotion rivals Birmingham City at St Andrew’s last night.

A match that was as heartening for Mick McCarthy’s team as it was cruel to Alex McLeish’s was settled by goals from stand-in front pairing Andy Keogh and Sam Vokes and a couple of critical moments of fortune for the visitors.

But this was one of those occasions where the victory, enjoyable as it was after three games without a win, was of secondary significance to the Wolves boss who sees promotion still a much bigger priority than the FA Cup 

See our photo gallery here 

Vokes, who must now be pushing Chris Iwelumo close for a starting role, and Keogh were excellent; Michael Kightly looked much more like his old self; the central defence was so much steadier with Richard Stearman restored alongside Neill Collins; former Shrewsbury midfielder David Edwards excelled as an emergency right-back and there was much more snap in the central midfield patrols of Karl Henry and David Jones.

The win must be balanced against Blues extensive staffing problems which meant they did not have enough players to fill out a bench which included Academy recruits Mitch McPike and Ashley Sammons, what with four ineligible transfer window signings and a cluster of other first team regulars were missing.

Yes, they will be a very different proposition when they get their last chance to beat Wolves this season in the third – and likely more vital – fixture at the same venue in the league in April.

And that is a match Blues will hope Howard Webb does not officiate. Webb made a poor decision in refusing to penalise a Stearman challenge on Marcus Bent just before the interval which should have brought a penalty and resulted in a second yellow card for the Wolves defender.

As it was, a clattered Bent was unable to resume and Wolves escaped punishment, so nearly turning it into a triple whammy by breaking away to force two goal-line clearances at the other end.

Webb then unwittingly got in the way of a Radhi Jaidi pass to trigger a sweeping 51st minute counter-attack which ended with Vokes claiming his goal.

The result, which sets up a home clash with Middlesbrough in round four a week on Saturday, gave 4,000 travelling fans a glimpse once more of the kind of cutting, breakaway football which has been such a feature of table-topping Wolves’ success this season.

By Tim Nash