Wolves have left Ipswich 12 points from safety with just seven games to go after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Portman Road.
Substitute Pablo Sarabia turned the game for Wolves, now nearly certain of safety, scoring his first goal in nearly five months before setting up Jorgen Strand Larsen’s late winner to create more distance from the bottom three.
Ipswich led through Liam Delap after 16 minutes, but are now facing a near-impossible task to stay up, with seven games to go and matches against Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle next.
Wolves’ win – their third in a row – also means Southampton’s relegation to the Championship will be confirmed if they lose at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Sarabia had only been on the pitch seven minutes before firing in the equaliser from just inside the box and then set up Strand Larsen for his fourth goal in three games with a low ball across the box.
Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap celebrates scoring against Wolves
Delap’s 12th league goal of the season gave his side the perfect start after 16 minutes as he nipped ahead of Jose Sa to poke in Dara O’Shea’s nod down, but their fate is seemingly sealed after a sixth home league defeat in a row.
This is the first time Wolves have won three games in a row since 2023 and they can now look up the table with just two points between them and 16th-placed Spurs ahead of their meeting next week, sandwiched in between the north London club’s huge Europa League quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Why Palmer wasn’t sent off for saving back pass off the line
Ipswich conceded an indirect free-kick from six yards out in the first half after an infringement by goalkeeper Alex Palmer, who cleared the ball off the line with his hand after allowing a back pass to roll under his foot.
Wolves rolled the ball to defender Emmanuel Agbadou but his shot was blocked by Ipswich.
Goalkeeper Palmer was booked for encroachment in the moments before the free-kick was taken, but why did he not receive a card for denying the goal with an illegal use of the hands?
Under the FA’s Laws of the Game, there is no further punishment than an indirect free-kick for such an offence.
“If the goalkeeper handles the ball inside their penalty area when not permitted to do so, an indirect free kick is awarded but there is no disciplinary sanction,” the law states.
McKenna concedes relegation is ‘more than likely’
Kieran McKenna concedes relegation is ‘more than likely’
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna:
“I think it’s [relegation] certainly more than likely on the balance of probabilities.
“That’s not that I don’t think we can finish the season strongly and win quite a few of our games, but Wolves are a really strong side, as they showed today, and the chances of them losing all their games is really, really low.
“The likeliness is we’re going to fall short of our ultimate dream at the end of the season. There’s going to be plenty of time to talk about that, analyse that and reflect on the positives and the negatives, but for now I don’t see too much changing in the next seven games.
“We knew coming into this nine-game block that the balance of probabilities was really small but we vowed as a group that we have to show the right values, show full commitment and try and deliver nine strong performances and get as many as we can. That will still be the objective when we go to our next training session.
“We have Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next, we have Arsenal here after that, we have Newcastle at St James’ Park, we have Everton in one of the last games at Goodison Park – we have some fantastic fixtures coming up for a club who haven’t been in the Premier League for 22 years.
“I know today is a big setback and it hurts, but I also know that the players, supporters, everyone, are going to muster up the energy that we need to compete as well as we can over the last few games and try and finish as well as we can.”
Pereira explains Strand Larsen’s peak in form
Wolves boss Vitor Pereira:
“If you look at the game, Larsen is getting better because he’s more adapted to the Premier League because of his work. Now Munetsi is playing close to him, creating spaces, attacking spaces every time, supporting the first ball. What we felt before was that when Larsen receives the first ball, the man close to him to support this ball was not there.
“Now they have a physical player that runs a lot, creating spaces every time in the box with him. It means that when the cross comes, the markers a lot of time go with Munetsi and Larsen is free to finish, and this is teamwork.”
Opta stats: Record-breaking day for both teams
● Wolves have won three consecutive matches in the Premier League for the first time since December 2023, while they’ve won three successive away games in the competition for the first time since a run of four under Bruno Lage in February 2022.
● Ipswich have lost each of their last six home league games – the Tractor Boys’ longest losing streak on home soil in the top four tiers since November 1963.
● Jorgen Strand Larsen has scored four goals across his last three Premier League games for Wolves, as many strikes as in his previous 18 appearances in the top-flight.
● Wolves’ Pablo Sarabia both scored and assisted in a Premier League match for just the second time, after also doing so against Tottenham in November 2023.