By Scott Cooper
March 12 2006

SERIOUS Crowd trouble overshadowed a great Wolves performance which saw the men from Molineux move into 6th place as goals in either half from Denes Rosa and Kenny Miller saw off Cardiff City.

Trouble at half time and after the game have made all the headlines following Wolves leap into the play off spots for the first time since New Years Day. The second half was delayed for almost 15 minutes as Police clashed with Cardiff Fans in the concourse area at half time. The trouble - believed to be started by the refusal to serve beer to the visiting supporters - then escalated to the stand as Police in riot gear waded into the Steve Bull lower to take control of the situation. Unfortunately, as is always the case during riots, innocent fans get injured, the picture of the Cardiff fan above being a case in point.

However once the second half finally got underway it was Wolves who looked the brighter of the two sides, just as they had in the first half. Boss Hoddle had made changes prior to the game after the inept performance at Home to Stoke four days earlier.

Darren Anderton and Mark Kennedy both missed the game through injury whilst Carl Cort and Maurice Ross were dropped to the bench. The former England Manager also reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Denes Rosa replacing Kennedy, Ricketts replacing Anderton, Gabor Gyepes replacing Maurice Ross and £1.4M signing Thomasz Frankowski replacing Carl Cort.

The changed paid off too, with Wolves looking much the brighter side from the first whistle to the final one. On loan Arsenal Striker Aliadiere and the pace of Kenny Miller and Frankowski scared the life out of the Cardiff back four and it was Aliadiere who set up Rosa for his first goal in English Football. The strikers pace took him down the left and his deep low cross was met by the tireless Rosa who made no mistake from two yards.

It should have been 2-0 minutes later when Naylors clever through ball met Aliadiere, but his effort was well saved by the City Keeper.

Frankowski, Miller and Ricketts all had efforts in the first half but neither could find the goal to kill off the visitors before the break.

Following the half time delay Wolves again looked the brighter, with Millers direct run from the kick off leading to an edge of the area free kick which Frankowski smashed over the bar.

However the goal to kill off the visitors finally came off in the 54th minute when Cox pushed over Frankowski in the area. The excellent Kenny Miller picked up the ball, sent the keeper the wrong way and slotted the ball home.

Wolves should have scored more but from some heroic goalkeeping. Rosa was replaced by Davies late on but the game was already settled and with Preston unable to beat Brighton it left Wolves in 6th place in the Championship and the team to catch.