Jørgen Strand Larsen, denied a £55m move to Newcastle at the end of the transfer window, remonstrated angrily with the home team’s coaching staff on the full-time whistle after he had been substituted late on as, for the second successive week, Wolves’ bid to get their season up and running was stymied by a late equaliser.
The Norway striker, recently back from an achilles injury, had just shot against a post, with Wolves leading through Bart Verbruggen’s own goal, as Brighton pushed for the leveller that duly arrived from Jan Paul van Hecke. Vítor Pereira, the Wolves head coach, had been dismissed just before the Premier League’s bottom side went ahead in the first half, when Marshall Munetsi’s volley rebounded off the bar, the goalkeeper and in.
Fabian Hürzeler’s side deserved a point for their second-half dominance but Wolves, after conceding in stoppage time to draw at Tottenham, had looked as if they were going to hang on for the first top-flight victory of the season. Strand Larsen looked Wolves’ best bet for a second goal and the home team were less able to get out from their low block with the slighter Jhon Arias leading the line.
As if trying to recover from another winless start was not a big enough peak to climb, letting in late levellers is turning hills into mountains. Wolves somehow recovered from a terrible start to last season, when they gained one point from eight games, to avoid relegation on the back of a near miraculous run of six successive league wins either side of Easter, Pereira having replaced Gary O’Neil in December. Asking them to do the same again without the goals and talent of Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri would be remarkable.
