Dave Edwards: Competitive Wolves have come a long way on current form

I was glad he did make changes that needed to be made, such as resting Mateus Mane. That was a really smart decision because he's played so much football in the last couple of weeks on some big occasions and it was really important to bring him out, but still get him some minutes in the game.

All the other changes he made didn't weaken Wolves too much and there were opportunities for players coming in, players who needed a few more minutes and it was a big opportunity for Jorgen Strand Larsen.

Edwards showed a lot of respect for the competition and to Shrewsbury as well. They would have been hoping to see a lot of kids playing but it wasn't to be and they got off to a really good start.

You could tell from the first moment that the players were on it. They were passing the ball really crisp, moving it quickly through the lines, being very progressive trying to move it forward when they could.

The interlinking play between the front two in Larsen and Hwang Hee-chan, as well as Jhon Arias joining in, worked extremely well and they scored two quick goals to settle the nerves.

Hwang's movement was brilliant throughout the whole game. That's something that I've spoken about a lot in the column recently - I want to see more of those little darting runs into that left channel. It's such an outlet for Wolves and now he looks like a completely different player to a month ago with his confidence.

He'll be disappointed in his involvement and the poor pass for Shrewsbury to get that one goal back, but overall I thought he had a good game.

What impressed me most about Larsen was the way he was able to drop into little spaces and link play. 

His touch was impeccable. He would kill it instantly, if it was a first-time lay-off or it was taking a touch for himself and then bringing other players.

Shrewsbury were having to bring people out of defence to track him but his touch was good for them to affect it, and then there were runners ready to exploit the space, just like Arias did for his goal, who is getting better and better at the moment with his displays.

It was a really good performance. Even after Shrewsbury got back into it, Wolves were still dominant.

It was nice for them that they got the goal just before half-time and the game was really over at that point, but for Wolves not to take their foot off the gas was impressive.

It could have fizzled out at 3-1 but Wolves put their foot down and created enough chances to score eight, nine or 10 goals.

Joao Gomes was the best player on the pitch, particularly in the first 45 minutes. He looked light years ahead of anything that Shrewsbury had.

He was in a class of his own in that first half and he got rested a little bit in the second half, which was good.

Wolves have some momentum right now and are improving game by game, so it was really important for Edwards to continue that with a tricky FA Cup tie.

A good way of understanding how far this team has come in a short space of time, in particular the last four or five games, is that when this game first came out it looked a terrible fixture for Wolves.

A local derby, a team who weren't doing well themselves who could come to Molineux and cause an upset. There was talk of the fans boycotting the match because of the situation with the ownership, the ticket prices had been slashed and could easily have been 10,000 people inside the stadium.

But for nearly 25,000 people to turn up on a cold day, for an early kick-off when it was difficult to travel to Molineux, and sing throughout the game like they did - that says a lot.

I can't remember one song being sung about Fosun in a derogatory way and that's testament to how well Edwards has got this Wolves team playing recently with the fans behind him.

Obviously they still have their issues with the ownership but they're at a point now where they want to get behind the team and Edwards.

Although it's still an almighty task to be competitive in the Premier League this season, I think they see enough optimism at this moment, that whatever happens they feel that next season will be a lot better with Rob Edwards at the helm.