Wolves’ 1-0 win on Sunday afternoon was far from perfect as Bruno Lage’s men managed to grind out for the last ten minutes of the game.
Yet, if you could have hand-picked a winning goal scorer before the game, every Wolves supporter on the planet would have chosen Raul Jimenez.
The Mexican scored a priceless goal in their win over Southampton at St Mary’s, his first since suffering his horrendous head injury last November.
It is nearly ten months to the very day since Jimenez fractured his skull but the way he took his goal, it looked as if he’d never been away.
He chased down a ball over the top before outmuscling a defender and then turning two more Saints players inside out.
It was remarkable composure from the striker who then stuck the ball past Alex McCarthy with ease.
The goal was his opening strike of the campaign and was just the second scored by a Wolves player in the Premier League in six outings this term.
Lage tried something different in attack with Trincao and Adama Traore dropped to the bench in favour of Hwang Hee-chan and Daniel Podence.
Although that worked with Wolves gaining all three points, there were some shoddy moments at the back.
Lage’s men began the game trying to play out from the back but it didn’t go well with Marcal at left-wing back.
He has been ever-present in the top-flight this term but will no doubt be looking over his shoulder in the direction of Rayan Ait-Nouri after his poor showing this weekend.
The Brazilian was poor in possession of the ball and also lacked the discipline to stay in the right position at the correct times.
Leander Dendoncker had to bail him out in the first half after losing the ball and it didn’t get much better for the 32-year-old.
He was caught out of position by Tino Livramento who ended up causing plenty of problems down Southampton’s right-hand side.
Marcal only won 30.7% of the defensive duels he was involved in, committed three fouls and was dribbled past on two occasions.
Yet, it was when he was in control of the play that he severely let the manager down.
Just 51% of his passes throughout the afternoon were successful, meaning he had the worst tally of anyone to start the game from both teams.
That meant that the wing-back lost possession on a mighty 25 occasions. Again, that was the worst number from any player on the South Coast.
Marcal has had some positive moments this season but after Ait-Nouri’s encouraging display against Tottenham last week where he registered an assist, he is beginning to stake his case for a place in the side.