There was a raucous atmosphere for the first derby with fans in attendance since February 2012, but there wasn’t an early goal to celebrate as Brandon Thomas-Asante and Jed Wallace both saw their headers saved inside the opening 10 minutes.
That came with Craig Dawson initially facing a barrage of boos and crosses into the box, and while his former supporters unwaveringly persisted, Wolves did make more of a mark on proceedings despite Matheus Cunha failing to test Josh Griffiths with two underwhelming efforts.
West Brom still posed a threat and a long throw from Darnell Furlong caused havoc in the Wolves box, with Cedric Kipre in the thick of it, before the ball was eventually cleared. It was a Baggies set-piece that proved to be their own downfall, though.
Alex Mowatt tried to pick out Wallace on the edge of the box with a corner delivery that was picked out by Matt Doherty, starting a break that culminated in Pedro Neto sliding a finish out of Griffiths’ reach with his side’s first shot on target.
John Swift and Mario Lemina had a tame attempt at either end early in the second half, before the hosts came agonisingly close to an equaliser when Max Kilman did brilliantly to stop Thomas-Asante from reaching Wallace’s knockdown.
Tommy Doyle took a big hit from the Baggies captain and abuse from their supporters, José Sá was caught by Conor Townsend and Kyle Bartley blocked off Matheus Cunha as the temperature rose.
Undeterred, the Brazilian had the final say as he ran off Bartley to latch onto Kilman’s ball and send his cool finish through Griffiths’ legs.
There were ugly scenes in the stands following the second goal that resulted in a considerable pause which saw both sets of players leave the field, but Wolves still saw out the win to secure a seventh consecutive match unbeaten across all competitions, while maintaining hopes of bettering their semi-final finish in 2019.
West Brom, meanwhile, lost for just the second time in their 13 home matches since the beginning of September and will now be focused on ensuring this derby is played in the Premier League next term.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Max Kilman (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
