Striker Pogrebnyak proves both a mouthful and a handful

Fulham 5 Wolves 0:IN THE words of the Fulham faithful, who needs Zamora when they've got The Pog? Pavel Pogrebnyak, their January deadline-day replacement for the QPR striker, probably needs the nickname. But as Wolverhampton Wanderers will attest, he is a handful as well as a mouthful, reports David Hytner at Craven Cottage.

The Russia striker, who is on a short-term contract from Stuttgart until the end of the season, when he becomes a free agent, reinforced the impression that he is made to measure for the Premier League.

Having scored vital goals in his first two games – the wins over Stoke and QPR – he plundered a hat-trick that sank Wolves and managed to emboss his fine performance of power and finesse.

If Terry Connor’s Wolves play and, in particular, defend like this, they will be relegated. This was an afternoon for them to stand up and be counted, with most of the ingredients in place for a dogfight. Yet, as the rain fell and the wind whipped off the Thames, they disappeared without trace.

Fulham could have reached double figures. Wayne Hennessey made smart saves when the game was goalless; Andrew Johnson, who set up two and also hit the crossbar, did everything but score and Fulham created chances almost at will towards the end.

Moussa Dembele, the striker deployed in central midfield, was excellent, while Clint Dempsey has now scored 18 goals in all competitions.

The day belonged to Pogrebnyak but for Wolves it was a day of soul searching. Their fans celebrated Jamie O’Hara’s on-target 90th-minute shot with ironic cheers.

Connor, asked to perform the salvage operation after the ham-fisted failure to appoint an external successor to the sacked manager Mick McCarthy, attempted to put the drubbing down to a few of lapses and a subsequent desire to chase the game.

He repeatedly mentioned Fulham’s third as the turning point and he even claimed that until then his team had “a platform to grab a goal back”. In reality this was a dismal game for Wolves in which there were only negatives, including Karl Henry’s withdrawal with a hamstring injury.

Connor’s post-match fighting talk has to be heeded. “We are always going to get a bloody nose every now and again,” he said. “It’s how we bounce back.”

When Wolves wake up from this nightmare, they will find themselves back in the bottom three.