Wolves 1 - 5 West Brom Wolves 1 - 5 West Brom Wolves 1 - 5 West Brom

This was the blackest of Black Country derbies for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Defeat to the local enemy is bad enough but the pain was heightened for the hosts with the recognition that they deserved to be thrashed in this encounter and now find themselves well and truly in a scrap for their Premier League survival.

Wolves sit in 17th position and out of the relegation zone on goal difference alone after this fourth straight defeat at Molineux. For Mick McCarthy, the manager, it could prove to be his last match here. The home supporters were chanting "you're getting sacked in the morning" even before the final whistle and it may be decided by the club's hierarchy that this is one defeat too many for a club that barely survived relegation last season.

Wolves were simply outplayed by West Bromwich Albion, who began this match with intent and maintained a level of composure throughout which fully justified their eventual victory. The highly impressive Peter Odemwingie scored a hat-trick with a rare strike from Jonas Olsson and a goal from Keith Andrews on his debut sealing a rout that will live long in Baggies history. Most probably lost in the minds of Wolves' disgusted supporters was the equalising goal Steven Fletcher had scored just before half-time.

Given the nature of their lineup, which had Youssouf Mulumbu stationed in front of the defence and Marc-Antoine Fortuné deployed as a lone striker, it seemed West Bromwich would begin this contest in a conservative fashion. Instead they were immediately on the front foot and the pressure was almost rewarded within two minutes when Jerome Thomas found himself in space to fire a shot at goal after Sébastien Bassong had inadvertently pushed James Morrison's cross into the winger's path. Wayne Hennessey pulled off a save, however, and the 25-year-old goalkeeper was called upon to make two further impressive blocks before West Brom finally got a deserved opener on 34 minutes. Having cut in from the right, Odemwingie drove a low shot which took a slight deflection of Dave Edwards and wrong-footed the unlucky Hennessey.

The hosts, who had up to then, shown plenty of gusto, suddenly looked flattened and it appeared certain they would end the half behind. But, as has often been the case for Wolves this season, Fletcher struck in impressive style, exchanging passes with Kevin Doyle and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake before hitting a drive underneath Ben Foster for his 10th goal of the season.

That should have been the cue for McCarthy's side to go on and win their second successive match, but after a bright start to the second half they again showed fragility in the face of West Brom's composure, summed up on 64 minutes when Olsson was able to restore the visitors' lead after Wolves had failed with numerous attempts to clear Morrison's corner.

Fletcher went close again with a header which Foster brilliant tipped away to safety before Odemwingie, having seen a close-range strike hacked off the line by Foley, scored his second for West Brom with a smart volley after Wolves had yet again failed to deal with a Morrison corner. Andrews got the fourth after good work from Morrison before Odemwingie hit a fifth late on. Some way for Roy Hodgson to mark his first year in charge of the club.