Ninety-five minutes of chaos gave way to a solitary image of despair. While friends and foes alike made their way back towards the dressing room, the Wolves substitute Owen Otasowie sat inconsolably in the corner of a net he should have bulged with the game’s final action. Otasowie, a 19-year-old midfielder who had come on two minutes from time, had headed Adama Traoré’s cross over the bar when completely unmarked and needed a member of the support staff to haul him to his feet before he departed the scene.
“For sure he’s going to react and he will have a chance like this and do better,” Nuno Espírito Santo said, and the manager must hope the same applies to his team. Wolves threw this away when, leading 3-1 at half-time against a Brighton side whose season looked to be careering out of control, a modicum of the assuredness they have generally shown in recent years would have seen them through.
While Otasowie could have bailed them out it was hardly his fault that João Moutinho, usually such an authoritative presence, needlessly fouled Neal Maupay 11 seconds after the restart for the penalty that halved the deficit. He could not be blamed, either, for the defending that allowed Lewis Dunk to thud home Brighton’s equaliser from a corner just minutes after Adam Webster had struck the bar from a near-identical situation.
Dunk’s header gave Brighton what they deserved and meant that, for now at least, they could shrug off some unprepossessing statistics. They are winless in 13 home league matches, and in their last eight at any venue. Nobody has drawn more games and it means they remain plausible relegation candidates. But their performance after the break, and even in some phases of the first half, showed refreshing vigour and lifted a little of the pressure gathering around their manager, Graham Potter.
“It was tough for us at half-time,” Potter said. “You’re looking for character and I thought we got it. The players were amazing: great spirit, personality and quality.” In fairness they had shown all three in taking a 13th-minute lead, Webster breaking the lines with an enterprising run before feeding Leandro Trossard for a cross that Aaron Connolly snicked past Rui Patrício. Connolly had not scored at the Amex since his first top-flight start nearly 15 months ago, but player and club soon looked doomed for further disappointment.
Brighton self-destructed in the subsequent half-hour, although Nuno professed satisfaction at the way Wolves wrested control. Romain Saïss converted a fine, craning header after Nélson Semedo had latched on to his own miskick and delivered accurately. Then Dan Burn was helpless as Robert Sánchez parried a deflected Pedro Neto drive on to him and over the line; the full-back had conceded a cheap corner in the buildup to the own goal, though, and erred again when he hacked Traoré down as the interval loomed. Rúben Neves scored from the spot and matters appeared to have been settled.
That was until Andi Zeqiri, who replaced the injured Connolly after the restart, won a header with his first touch and brought about Moutinho’s panicked intervention as Maupay entered the box. Maupay still had two defenders between him and the goal, so must have felt grateful when dispatching the resulting gift.
“I’m not disappointed with João,” Nuno said. “I’m disappointed with me, with everybody.” Wolves’ defending after that was calamitous; Zeqiri should have buried the rebound after Webster’s brush with the woodwork but they were not so lucky when Dunk met Trossard’s set-piece. Nuno admitted his side, now without a clean sheet in 10 games, were “making mistakes that we shouldn’t make”. Eventually, it may cheer Otasowie that fluffed chances felt like the least of his manager’s concerns.