Comment: Nuno's Wolves have all the answers

On the balance of play Saturday's trip to Reading should have ended up as a draw all day long. In fact on the number of chances created Reading edged it – and had Wolves on the ropes for long spells.

With five minutes to go Wolves’ 1-0 lead looked as brittle as a repeatedly tea-dunked digestive. Then they promptly went up the other end and scored, as if to ask what everyone was so worried about.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolves don’t really do late calamities. They possess the resilience to complement their sensational attacking flair...and the two facets were witnessed in tandem at the Madejski.

On the one hand it was Wolves’ superior quality in the final third that won them this tight encounter.

Ivan Cavaleiro’s outrageous audacity in rolling the ball past befuddled keeper Vito Mannone with the underside of his boot displayed the uninhibited panache we’ve come to expect from Wolves’ forward players this season.

Then Helder Costa began to resemble, well, Helder Costa, when he gleefully skipped past a couple of challenges with the joyful abandon of a galloping gazelle before teeing Matt Doherty up for the clinching second goal.

But on the other hand it was ample defending of the last-ditch variety that ultimately earned the three points.

This was take your girlfriend home to meet the parents-style defending, as opposed to the frisky weekend away that was happening at the other end of the pitch.

It was no nonsense, by the book, get the job done defending. Subtle, it wasn’t.

Kamikaze-style blocks were produced by Conor Coady and the magnificent Willy Boly, who could write a manual on how to defend in the Championship defending despite only having played eight games in the league.

‘Winter is coming’ to coin the Game of Thrones phrase – and Boly is Wolves’ impenetrable wall, whom not even the Icelandic Night King Jon Dadi Bodvarsson could pass.

You know things are going Wolves’ way when neither Bodvarsson nor David Edwards, who was afforded a fantastic reception from the visiting supporters when he belatedly entered the fray as a substitute, can reignite the curse of the ex-Wolves player.

Playing below your best and winning is so often the habit of a successful team and Wolves keep doing it.

They’ve produced some spellbinding performances of free-flowing football so far this season – this definitely wasn’t one of them.

Home games against Leeds United and Bolton Wanderers this week offer a presentable opportunity to cement their position at the top of the table. With third-placed Cardiff travelling to Barnsley and Nottingham Forest the gap to third could even be increased.

Either way, the league table looks rosy for Wolves right now. As do their promotion prospects after what's been a deeply impressive response to that off-colour defeat at QPR last month.

Three successive 2-0 victories have followed against Norwich City, Fulham and now Reading, all achieved in different manners and with five different goalscorers (Doherty's goal made it 14 scorers already this season).

They've shown they can bounce back from adversity, with three win following their three defeats, they can win ugly or pretty, they have the league's top scorer in Bonatini, assists and creativity from all over the park, the division's most expensive player in Ruben Neves who is living up to the hype, the best away record in the league, the third best home record, they've scored more goals than anyone and kept the most clean sheets.

Wolves are going to take some stopping. A freakish run of injuries, Nuno leaving or general complacency appear to be the only obvious pitfalls.

Because otherwise this team shows no signs of falling, no matter how high the hurdle.