Manchester United held on to defeat Wolves

Ten-man Manchester United held on to defeat Wolves 1-0 thanks to a Danny Welbeck strike in their third round Carling Cup clash at Old Trafford.

Wolves were unable to take advantage of Fabio's 29th minute dismissal for a professional foul on Michael Kightly and United eased through to round four with the minimum of fuss thanks to Welbeck's composed 66th minute finish.
It was Wolves who had the first opportunity of the match after 12 minutes and the former United striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake was the man with the chance.
Ebanks-Blake and Kightly had shared a few neat link-ups prior to this one and this time Kightly fed last season's top scorer in the Championship, who cut inside and hit a shot that had Tomasz Kuszczak at full stretch, but that in the end was just too high.
United, as is customary at Old Trafford, enjoyed the majority of possession, but in part due to Nani's inability to produce a final ball to back up his neat wing play, the hosts hadn't created a chance of note in the opening 28 minutes.
In the 29th minute Wolves broke after a United attack and when the ball broke loose after a challenge by Wes Brown on Stefan Maierhofer, Kightly was away and clear.
Fabio was caught on the wrong side and with Kightly bearing down on goal Fabio slipped and pulled the Wolves winger down with him, giving referee Peter Walton no option but to send the young defender off.
Wolves had a couple of chances to make their numerical advantage tell in the final quarter of an hour of the half, but David Jones, himself a former United youngster, was guilty of missing the best of them.

Goalmouth action was few and far between in the second half and other than a deflected 64th minute effort from Nani that struck Marcus Hahnemann's post and rebounded to safety, chances were at a premium and the match looked to be at a stalemate with Wolves reluctant to go all out for the win.
All that changed two minutes later when Michael Carrick picked out Owen on the edge of the Wolves penalty area and the striker played a perfectly weighted first time pass to Welbeck, who finished confidently past Hahnemann.
Wolves brought on Kevin Doyle for the tiring Ebanks-Blake and the Irish international had the best of the remaining chances in the game, however he found Kuszczak in decent form in goal for United and the visitors were unable to get back into the game.