Wolves devour Saints to bolster promotion bid

Championship leaders Wolves gave their promotion bid a boost on Friday and deepened the gloom for cash-strapped Southampton with a 3-0 win at Molineux which leaves Saints on the brink of the drop.

The win, achieved with goals in the opening 20 minutes from teenager Sam Vokes, Jody Craddock and David Jones, took Mick McCarthy’s side five points clear of a Birmingham side which had beaten them on Monday to take them to the brink of a place in the elite.

Southampton, second bottom of the table and already with a poorer goal difference than several of their rivals strugglers, were behind inside a minute after Vokes headed home from a David Jones scorner and then Craddock made it two with less than six minutes on the clock, his first in two seasons.

The opening double salvo meant Wolves were making light of injuries to top scorers Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo.

Mark Wotte’s visitors were undone again in the 18th minute after Marek Saganowski tripped David Edwards and Jones smashed in the resulting penalty.

Southampton are now two points from safety with only four games left.