Wolves secured an emphatic 4-1 victory over Brentford on Wednesday night as Gary O’Neil’s side enjoyed their best win of the season at the Gtech Community Stadium.
In what was an exciting contest from start to finish, Wolves punished some sloppy defensive errors from the hosts and were clinical on the counter attack.
Former Wolves centre-back Nathan Collins, who departed the club after one season in the summer, had a night to forget having made two mistakes leading to goals.
Hwang Hee-Chan scored a brace on the night with the first coming from a Collins mistake while the second saw him remain very composed in the penalty area before confidently dispatching his chance.
The South Korean striker was forced off at half-time through injury but his incredible pressing from the front and pace in-behind set the tone for an impressive away victory.
After taking his tally to ten goals for the season, only Dominic Solanke and Erling Haaland now boast a better minutes-per-goal ratio than Hwang.
Although he was tremendous, he wasn’t the only Wolves player who put in a fine individual performance as Joao Gomes was super in the engine room, alongside the tenacious Mario Lemina.
Mario Lemina was ‘incredible’ in Wolves 4-1 win over Brentford
Lemina was captured for £9 million from OGC Nice in January and he continues to make a mockery of that price tag.
The former Southampton star opened the scoring with a powerful header and then dominated Brentford for the rest of the match alongside Gomes.
After their budding midfield partnership was hailed as ‘incredible’ by Gary O’Neil following the victory over Chelsea, the pair continued where they left off in this match.
Lemina was everywhere in midfield and was exceptional out of possession, tanking through every challenge he committed to and was a complete nuisance for the Bees to deal with.
According to Sofascore, he won all three of his ground duels and three of his four aerial duels while making three tackles and three clearances.
The £45k-a-week titan was also crucial in helping Wolves recycle possession and always attempted to play a positive pass.
Despite attempting to take risks to unlock Brentford’s defence by accurately placing four of his seven long balls, he only lost possession seven times and accrued an 85% pass completion.
On the back of such an impressive performance, Lemina deserves praise alongside his Brazilian counterpart and the 30-year-old will want to continue those levels in Saturday’s home fixture against Everton.