Wolves 1-2 Crystal Palace

Wolves last night suffered its first Molineux defeat of the Stale Solbakken era. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake capitalised on a mistake from Damien Delaney to give Wolves the lead, before Wilfried Zaha struck twice to take the points back to Selhurst Park.

- There are times that defeats feel like defeats. Until the farcical final 10 games or so of last season, every loss last season felt like a sledgehammer blow. The players looked like defeat was expected, while the supporters got more and more unforgiving. But tonight's defeat was different. We didn't lose because we had the worst eleven players on the pitch, it was a good game and we were beaten by one hell of a winning goal. Similarly, I was half expecting a chorus of boos at the final whistle, but instead there were pockets of applause. This almost felt like a defeat that the club needed, a defeat to banish the dreadful memories of last season where each loss preceded another loss. This is a very different Wolves side to that of 2012/13, it has a little bit of steel to it, and the supporters are recognising and starting to celebrate this.

- Anyway, the line-up will have surprised no one with the only change from the weekend victory over Sheffield Wednesday being the reintroduction of Słavomir Peszko for the injured Razak Boukari. Peszko himself was stretchered off in the second half last night, leaving a hole in our potential starting eleven. Tonight, Björn Sigurðarson replaced Peszko, but I don't think he's particularly a wide midfielder. Yet, the natural replacement is the youngster Anthony Forde who, as yet, has not demonstrated at all that he is ready for a sustained period of first team football.

- We played a fairly basic 4-4-2 as usual, although this was more like a 4-2-4 at times. It was slightly worrying to see Peszko and especially Bakary Sako jogging back to the halfway line while Crystal Palace were attacking at the end. Sako isn't the quickest at getting back into position, and often Ebanks-Blake and Kevin Doyle found themselves deep in the midfield, covering the wide men - not an ideal situation.

- But, Sako isn't in the team to defend and he clearly looked our best bet for a goal. In the first half especially, he managed to dig out dangerous crosses from seemingly impossible positions that caused Palace's defenders all sorts of problems. The amount of corners he took was also in double figures, and I can't think of a single poor one. Doyle headed over from one in the first half, while Christophe Berra and Roger Johnson should both have probably got their first goals for the club in the second half from Sako set pieces. Add these deliveries to the assists he already has and the goals against Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday, and his set pieces are arguably worth a place in the starting 11 on their own. However, he tired towards the end, demonstrated by a poor free kick effort, ballooned into the North Bank.

- If Sako was the Wolves player most likely to create, then the Palace equivalent was clearly Wilfried Zaha, a player I was looking forward to seeing. And generally, he didn't disappoint. Obviously his second goal was excellent, and his first was well taken (although there seemed to be a hint of offside - I'd like to see it again) but his all round game was quite good. He gave Stephen Ward numerous problems with his quick feet, and was possibly unlucky not to get a penalty in the first half. In fact, his second goal showed how much he troubled Ward, with Ward afraid to get too close to him for fear of being beaten.

- Wolves continue to try and play the ball out from the back (with the exception Roger Johnson who seems to think he's Andrea Pirlo at times), but this isn't always easy when the central midfield aren't on their game. Karl Henry had possibly his worst game of the season, being loose in possession and was probably lucky to still be on the pitch after two tackles that could easily have been cautions. Alongside him, Tongo Doumbia wasn't at his most influential, perhaps aware that Henry couldn't give him the cover that he normally would. But, those two are still light years ahead of their direct replacements. I like David Davis, but the withdrawal of Henry seemed to coincide with a little bit of a loss of control of the midfield. If either is missing for a sustained period, I suspect we will struggle.