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Wolves v Middlesbrough - five talking points

Wolves succumbed to yet another defeat as a late comeback from Middlesbrough saw them leave Molineux with all three points.

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David Edwards had given Kenny Jackett's team a first-half lead, but in the final 19 minutes three goals from the visitors handed Wolves a third straight defeat.

Where do they go from here? Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers picks out five talking points from another depressing 90 minutes.

Pretty simple this one - Wolves are running out of defenders.

The reasons behind this have already been explored in these pages, and don't need repeating on a daily basis.

But the fact is that they now have just Matt Doherty, Dominic Iorfa, Danny Batth and Scott Golbourne as recognised senior defenders.

Ironically, Kortney Hause was in the middle of his finest performance of the season.

A daring escapade into the Middlesbrough half during the first period demonstrated his growing confidence, while defensively he was sound, quelling the threat of David Nugent and winning a succession of headers.

His injury misfortune must lead to a new face coming in this week. Easier said than done, of course, but to suggest that there isn't a single central defender out there who can't come in and do a job for a few weeks is folly.

Heck, Wolves are doing enough clubs favours by sending out their players, witness Tommy Rowe, George Saville, Lee Evans, Aaron McCarey, Jordan Graham, Zeli Ismail and Liam McAlinden all impressing at one stage or another for their respective League One and League Two clubs.

Jackett simply cannot go into three games in seven days, against Birmingham City, Bristol City and Burnley, with only four recognised defenders.

Talking of which, boy do Wolves need to start winning some football matches.

It may be only October, but they're now nine points off the play-offs. Yet more indifferent results in that aforementioned trio of matches which come before another international break, and their promotion chances will start to look very remote indeed.

And, perish the thought, another three defeats, and Jackett will find his position under intense scrutiny.

The fans have not turned on him yet (some have on social media, but Twitter is seldom an accurate reflection of the core fanbase) and, judging on the effort, spirit and determination displayed by his players against Middlesbrough, he hasn't lost the dressing room either.

Poor results in the next run of matches and that may change.

Jackett is facing the toughest spell of his Wolves tenure.

What made this defeat so disappointing is that Wolves were so much better than in their miserable capitulation against Brentford three days earlier.

They took the game to Boro, matched them for quality and created more chances.

That they didn't win, let alone draw, was down to a combination of bad luck, heroic Boro defending and, typically for Wolves this season, individual mistakes at the back.

But for the first 71 minutes they were deservedly ahead and must take heart from their performance.

Key to the improvement was team selection.

Jackett dispensed with the square pegs in round holes philosophy that, unsurprisingly, hadn't served him too well of late, and reverted to playing players in their best positions, particularly David Edwards and Benik Afobe, who were arguably the two best performers on the day.

The snubbing of Jack Price will have angered many, but Jackett wanted physicality against Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton and plumped again for Conor Coady.

Coady certainly was physical and indeed incredibly fortunate not to have been sent off, but like so many of his team mates he raised his game from the Brentford defeat.

Leaving James Henry out was the one that Jackett did get wrong though. On the flanks Nathan Byrne, pacey and with quick feet, showed flashes of what he can do and is worthy of seeing again next weekend, but Rajiv van La Parra didn't impress.

The Dutchman looked absolutely distraught to be withdrawn in the second half but, for all his running and endeavour, his lack of end product meant he could have no complaints.

It's been a tough 15 months or so for Scott Golbourne.

Beset by injury last season, rendering his 2014/15 campaign an almost total washout, Golbourne has been trying to play his way into form since the start of pre-season.

And against Middlesbrough he looked somewhere back to his 2013/14 vintage.

His peach of a cross for Edwards' goal was impressive, but the fact just he was in a position to receive Kevin McDonald's sumptuous defence-splitting through ball was just as pleasing, as his forays forward have been far too infrequent this season.

He also easily handled Emilio Nsue and continued to get forward in the second half.

Golbourne is going some way to becoming a player Jackett can again rely on.

Diego Fabbrini celebrates beating Emiliano Martinez to equalise for Middlesbrough.

Emiliano Martinez, with the attributes he clearly possesses, could go on to be a top class goalkeeper, fit to grace the Arsenal number one spot.

He is not that goalkeeper at the moment. And it's costing Wolves.

The Argentine is still learning his trade and if he was a 23-year-old that had come through the Wolves academy and was being played every week to aid his development for Wolves' benefit in the long term, like, say, Kortney Hause for example, you could have more patience.

He isn't, though. Martinez will be back at Arsenal next season, no doubt a better goalkeeper for his experiences at Molineux. But Wolves need a solid custodian between the sticks. Ironically they have one sat on their substitutes' bench.

After Martinez allowed Diego Fabbrini's tame shot to trickle fairly gently past his despairing dive, Wolves imploded defensively, and the game was lost.

Unless Martinez can find that elusive, solid, week-after-week consistency, then it's unlikely that Wolves can either.

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