Wigan 2 Wolves 0 - match report

Karl Henry has been an inspiration for Wolves, the driving force and arguably the club's best player this season.

Winning tackles galore, more often than not he has set the tone for any number of snapping, snarling Wolves performances to show they will not be bullied on the Premier League stage.

He has perhaps, more than any other player, symbolised all that is good about Wolves under Mick McCarthy: a young, hungry, up-and-coming, eager-to-learn determined pro who arrived for a snip and has gone on to improve immeasurably as the heartbeat of a team establishing themselves in the top flight.

But on Saturday he was not any of these things.

In one rush of blood, and in one foolish challenge after just 10 minutes of the game, he let himself, his team-mates and the fans down for the first time as a Wolves player.

Given where it was on the pitch - the halfway line - and the time in the game, nothing could excuse the tackle on Jordi Gomez, just like nothing could stop the inevitability of the red card that followed from referee Lee Mason.

The speed with which the Wolves captain propelled himself into the challenge gave him no room for error.

With Gomez moving the ball a few centimetres in that split second - and no doubt anticipating the impact - Henry connected with the player instead, sending him pirouetting into the air with a grace Tom Daly would have been proud of.

And all of a sudden, the challenge looked far uglier than it might have been. But the impact of Henry's tackle is far more severe on Wolves than it turned out to be on Gomez.

The Spanish midfielder, of course, went on to rub salt into the wounds of the visitors with a fabulous free-kick that ripped into the top corner of the net to open the scoring after 65 minutes.

Being a man down for 80 minutes always meant it was going to be a backs-to-the-wall job for McCarthy's side.

Conceding a goal made their task harder.

It's an oft-quoted phrase that teams take on the personality of their managers and there was something unmistakeably McCarthy-like about Henry's tackle: brutally honest and well-intentioned.

But Wolves know you have to box clever at this level if you are to keep your heads above water.

Unfortunately, Wolves are at the stage of their development where the margins between winning and losing matches are so fine.

They do not have the capability to steamroller teams and must rely on all players firing at 100 per cent in every game to gain anything from it.

And losing such a key player so early on in what was a potentially pivotal encounter was so damaging to their cause.

Already playing with Kevin Doyle alone up front and Michael Mancienne in front of the back four - Steven Fletcher started at wide right - it was always going to be a game where Wolves were going to have to be patient to grind out a result.

Henry's actions merely made their task nigh on impossible and, with all their attentions on containing Wigan, Steven Fletcher's free-kick that drifted narrowly wide in the first half was their only attempt on goal to the Latics' 22.

That it took Wigan so long to break open the door was down to a nervousness no doubt brought on by a tetchy home crowd and the fact that the hosts had only scored twice all season.

Of course, when your luck's down, decisions to go against you and Wolves were harshly penalised for Dave Edwards's split-second hold on Charles N'Zogbia that led to Gomez's free-kick.

In the end, Christophe Berra's sliding challenge that was deflected in by Hugo Rodallega completed a miserable afternoon for Wolves.

Looking ahead, the consequences of Henry's challenge are far-reaching.

He misses the next three games, starting with another six-pointer against West Ham followed by a trip to Chelsea when they are already without three midfielders - Henry, the ineligible Michael Mancienne and the injured Adlene Guedioura.

Perhaps the only silver lining is that the third is the Carling Cup trip to Manchester United, when he probably would not have been considered anyway.

The one hope is his game will not be dulled by the near month of inactivity before he is available again for the visit of big-spending Manchester City on October 30.

The last time Wolves lost four games in a row, in April 2004, it sounded their relegation death knell from the Premier League.

Bottom, six points from safety with 31 games played, there was only one outcome.

This time it is different. There are 31 matches left and plenty of time.

But they need to turn things around at a time when the fixture list is at its most unkind.

By Tim Nash