Wolves humiliated by goal-hungry Addicks

Wolves 0 Charlton 4

Wolves had waited 19 years for top-flight football to return to Molineux but Charlton hijacked the party on a humiliating day Dave Jones will want to forget.

For the second week in a row Wolves were found desperately wanting as an inspired first half display by Alan Curbishley’s men spelled out big Premiership problems ahead.

Scott Parker’s late sending-off will hardly have dampened the Charlton party while Wolves might be nursing a Premiership headache for some time to come.

The pre-match firework smoke had hardly cleared by the time Jason Euell struck the visitors’ fourth minute opener, and half an hour later supporters in the newly inaugurated Steve Bull Stand were streaming for the exits.

Bull will have watched in horror from the stands as his side completely capitulated and were lucky to go in at the interval only four behind.

Euell slid home an easy opener after pouncing on a dreadfully short back-header from Colin Cameron and it could only get worse for the stunned home team.

Claus Jensen hammered home a brilliant 15th minute free-kick from long-range after Jody Craddock was penalised for pulling down Shaun Bartlett.

Charlton grabbed their third in the 24th minute when Parker seized a long ball from Radostin Kishishev on the left of the Wolves box and tapped the ball past home keeper Michael Oakes for Shaun Bartlett to net his first with ridiculous ease.

The visitors continued to carve up their opponents with training ground nonchalance and their fourth arrived in the 33rd minute after a magnificent sweeping move.

Euell’s clever pass sent Parker away in acres of space down the visitors’ left flank and Parker simply played a short pass in-field to Bartlett who once again could hardly miss from 10 yards.

It should have been even worse two minutes later when Euell shot inches over Oakes’ bar after turning Craddock in the box.

And one minute later Bartlett shot straight at Oakes from Young’s right-wing cross.

Shocked Wolves rallied slightly towards the end of the first half with Silas shooting just wide and Naylor firing over the bar.

But Wolves’ only real chance came in first half injury time when Ince met Naylor’s free-kick with a powerful low header in the box which was punched away by a stretching Kiely.

Things were so bad that the fans who had waited 19 years for this day greeted their first 45 minutes of Premiership football with a smattering of boos.

Jones made two changes at half-time and the introduction of Alex Rae certainly started to stem the tide as the home side fought back.

But finishing remained a major problem and after a spell of pressure it was Charlton who should have ended the second half deadlock when Hermann Hreidarsson stooped to meet Jensen’s left-wing corner but headed inches wide of Oakes’ left-hand post.

Steffen Iversen’s ineffective home debut ended shortly after he had skied a Rae corner over the bar and the introduction of Dean Sturridge in his place added threat.

Charlton were still coasting though and it seemed somewhat harsh when Parker was red-carded in the 70th minute after clashing with Wolves substitute Kevin Cooper on the edge of the visitors’ box.

Curbishley found himself in the luxurious position of being 4-0 up and able to introduce Paulo Di Canio for the last 15 minutes for his Charlton debut.

But the Italian did not get much chance to make an impression as Wolves finished well and had their best chance of the match in injury time when Sturridge was inches away from prodding Blake’s cross into an empty net.

Charlton had long since taken their foot off the pedal and thoroughly erased memories of their 3-0 opening day defeat to Manchester City.

Wolves have now conceded nine goals in their first two Premiership games, and just when they thought it could not get any worse, they find a trip to Old Trafford next on their itinerary in four days’ time.