Soccer Football - Premier League - Brentford v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Brentford Community Stadium, London, Britain - December 27, 2023 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Hwang Hee-chan celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Tony Obrien
LONDON (Reuters) -Hwang Hee-chan scored twice to lead Wolverhampton Wanderers to a 4-1 Premier League victory over Brentford on Wednesday in an end-to-end mid-table clash that featured four goals in the opening half hour.
Gary O'Neil's Wolves, who won back-to-back league games and netted more than two goals in a match for the first time this season, moved to 11th in the Premier League table on 25 points. Brentford are 15th on 19 points, four points clear of the drop zone.
"Delighted," Wolves captain Max Kilman told Amazon Prime. "We wanted to come here, put in a good performance and obviously to get back-to-back wins is massive for us.
"Crazy, crazy first half, we've never had many of these decisions, so credit to the boys up front, they worked their socks off," he added.
Mario Lemina opened the floodgates in the 13th minute when he leapt to head in a long cross from Pablo Sarabia, the first of three goals in three minutes.
Hwang, who has scored 10 league goals this season, doubled Wolves' lead a minute later when defender Nathan Collins sold keeper Mark Flekken short and the forward had an easy finish.
Yoane Wissa pulled one back for the hosts in the 16th minute when he stretched out a leg to tap a nice flick from Neal Maupay past Jose Sa.
Hwang completed his brace when he chipped the ball around Ethan Pinnock and finished neatly before Jean-Ricner Bellegarde completed the rout in the 79th minute.
"I'm so happy to score again and so happy to win," Hwang told Prime.
The South Korean left the game late in the first half with what looked like a back injury but he downplayed the severity of it.
"I think it's not a big injury, it's OK," he said.
Coming off their 2-1 win over Chelsea on Sunday, Wolves are undefeated in four of their last five games and sit 10 points clear of the drop zone, an excellent turnaround after stumbling to four losses in their first five games of the season.
Wolves have been notoriously bad on the road and the win at Brentford was only their fifth win in their last 29 away games.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Ed Osmond)
