Order restored for Wolves as Ndah lifts pressure on Jones

Walsall 0 Wolves 1

Wolves' manager, Dave Jones, feared that his predecessor at Molineux, Colin Lee, could have put him out of a job after yesterday's West Midlands derby. But a 1-0 victory at Lee's Walsall ended a miserable five-game losing streak and eased the mounting pressure on Jones.

With a stern warning from the chairman, Sir Jack Hayward, that the side were under-performing, Jones was finding things tough a week ago. However, victories over Premiership Newcastle and yesterday at Walsall – which moves Wolves to within touching distance of the play-offs again thanks to George Ndah's solitary strike – have restored order.

After the heroic FA Cup third-round victory over Newcastle six days earlier Jones had been speaking of getting back to reality before this First Division derby. Travelling a junction down the M5 to face their rivals certainly did that.

The West Midlands tie with Wolves is always the biggest game in the calendar for Walsall, who were without their suspended Portuguese forward Jorge Leitao but welcomed back Danny Sonner to midfield. The Bescot Stadium outfit duly pulled out the stops to beat the cold snap. Jones admitted being shocked that the game went ahead with the pitch lacking colour and looking like a mudbath, but Walsall had covered the surface for much of the week to protect it from the elements. And the addition of 50 tons of sand on Wednesday certainly helped, even if it did take away the natural look.

On the pitch, in typical derby fashion, a furious pace was set from the start and it took less than 10 seconds before Walsall's Junior committed the first foul. Worse still, the home captain, Martin O'Connor, well up for the fight with his more illustrious midfield rival Paul Ince, was lucky to stay on after contesting a poor refereeing decision by threatening to throw the ball at the referee, Phillip Dowd. He was booked.

Goalmouth action was sparse and surprisingly it was struggling Walsall who made headway. The Brazilian Junior had a left-foot shot blocked after 16 minutes and then he set up O'Connor on the half-hour only for the midfielder to hit his shot over the bar. At the other end, Colin Cameron volleyed over for the visitors and Ince hit another effort wide from distance. Their best effort of the opening period fell to Ndah, but his drive flew across James Walker's goal.

Walsall face Reading in an FA Cup replay on Tuesday and the pitch will need immense work ahead of that clash, just as it did at half-time as ground staff worked overtime to fill a hole left by Junior in the opening period. After 64 minutes, more holes were found, this time in the home defence as Wolves broke the deadlock with a comical goal. Goalkeeper Walker fluffed at Matt Carbon's backpass and, although he managed to prevent the ball crossing the line, Ndah was on hand to poke the ball into an empty net for his first goal away from home for 21 months.

Junior almost replied within a minute, but his free-kick was deflected over and, after delivering the corner himself, he danced through the visiting defence only to finish waywardly. It was going to need a virtuoso performance to get Walsall back in the game on a pitch of Sunday league quality.

Lee's side failed to find the equaliser and, in the pressure cooker of the first division, it is him, rather than Jones, who faces a nervous week with, defeat pushing Walsall closer to the drop zone.