Wolves passed up the chance to extend their grip on the Championship promotion race despite the best efforts of Sylvan Ebanks-Blake last night.

A hat-trick from the Wolves striker, taking his tally for the season to 20, was the result of a destructive display of finishing amid a performance which may have been uneven but did not want for goalscoring opportunities.

However, Wolves were as bad defending their own penalty area as they were good at invading Norwich City’s. The visitors’ first and third goals were embarrassing to the league leaders and left a Molineux public still to be convinced this is all going to turn out right in the end pinning much on the newly-acquired central defender Christophe Berra, who was watching from the stands.

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This was a game loaded with a potential for familiar faces to return and haunt Wolves. Norwich included ex-Academy graduate Sammy Clingan and one time striker Carl Cort while Alan Gow, whom Wolves deferred from signing in January because of worries about a hamstring weakness, was among their substitutes.

Sure enough, Cort struck a peach of a goal to briefly put his team in front early in the second half but this was a night when Wolves were placed in even greater jeopardy by their own personnel.

With Jody Craddock spending so much of this season fighting to overcome injury and Richard Stearman only arriving in the summer, it was only right to expect Wolves’ central defensive partners to be a little unfamiliar with each other.

But last night they were operating in different post codes and Cort and Jamie Cureton had all sorts of fun exploiting the duo’s positional discomfort and uncertainty. 

With keeper Wayne Hennessey seemingly affected by the insecurity in front of him, Wolves handed Norwich gift-wrapped Gary Doherty and Lee Croft goals either side of their old striker’s effort leaving manager Mick McCarthy to furiously hurl his water bottle to the turf in frustration at the final whistle.

Thank goodness, then, for Ebanks-Blake. Sir Alex Ferguson calls this stage of the season “squeaky bum time” and that is not exclusively reserved for the Premier League title battle.

In both words and deeds, Ebanks-Blake is precisely what McCarthy is now looking for – determined to make things happen, determined to succeed. He did both against Norwich.

Apart from his hat-trick, each goal set up by an equally uninhibited Matt Jarvis, he smashed another effort against the bar and so nearly stole a winner in added time with a jabbed, far-post volley which was unluckily deflected wide.

By Tim Nash