Birmingham Mail

Between 1979 and 1989 Wolves lost nine successive games against those pesky Brighton boys, including a 5-1 defeat at the Goldstone Ground in 1985 and 4-2 reverse on a cold September night at Molineux in 1989.

The sequence was finally ended with a couple of 1-1 draws, but it wasn’t until a further three meetings - making it 14 games in total - that Wolves finally registered a win.

December 28, 1991. Wolves 2, Brighton 0. Goals from Mark Burke and Andy Mutch. Happy days.

Although they then suffered a shock 4-1 defeat at a time when they were enroute to the Premiership, a couple more wins mean it’s fair to assume the Brighton bogey has been laid to rest.

So up, in their place, step Southampton.

Southampton. Dear me. Southampton.

Wolves have failed to beat Southampton in 15 games, stretching all the way back to a 3-0 win at the Dell in 1980. (Andy Gray two and Norman Bell for anyone who gives a monkeys).

Wolves have also scored just one of the last 19 goals in the fixture, haven’t scored for some six hours and 18 minutes and have yet to find the net in four visits since the Saints moved to St Mary’s Stadium.

Tonight then, the captains may as well shake hands, referee Darren Deadman blow his whistle and we all adjourn to Le Tissier’s Arms up the road and await news of Southampton’s latest victory.

But of course football fans are made of sterner stuff than that.

There will be gold and black filled cars heading down South this afternoon in defiantly confident mood that all will turn out well.

That finally, after 27 years, Wolves can once again celebrate victory against the team that gave us Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle, Lawrie “I can’t believe he hasn’t given a penalty” McMenemy and Mick Channon’s roundhouse celebration.

Fingers crossed eh?