Jorgen Strand Larsen scored a hat-trick as Wolves eased to a 6-1 demolition of League Two Shrewsbury to book their place in the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup.
Things haven’t been easy for Wolves’ bottom side in what has been a worrying Premier League season, but they enjoyed a rare comfortable afternoon at Molineux to continue their recent surge in form and proved a class apart from a team struggling for their own safety three leagues below.
Strand Larsen opened a 12-game goalless streak, which was soon followed by John Arias, who made it two with his second goal for the club.
Wolves strolled through the opening 25 minutes, but the fourth-tier visitors managed to halve the deficit through John Markis’ spot-kick, but a sloppy pass from Elih Harrison gave Strand Larsen one of the easiest goals of his career.
The Norway international – who was linked with a move away from Molineux in the January transfer window – grabbed his first hat-trick for the club in the second period before Rodrigo Gomes and Tolu Arokodare rounded off the scoring to help extend Wolves’ recent unbeaten run to four matches.
The home team didn’t have to get out of second gear before opening the scoring in the ninth minute. Santiago Bueno unlocked the Shrews’ defense with a perfect cross to Hee Chan Hwang, who passed to Strand Larsen, who fired into an empty net.
The Wolves doubled their lead two minutes later, this time Strand Larsen became the creator and passed the ball to Arias, who caught the pass and expertly finished past Harrison.
Despite being relatively comfortable in the first quarter, Wolves gave Shrewsbury a chance to halve the deficit from the penalty spot as Arias brought down Marquis rather tamely in the box and he stepped up before sending Sam Johnstone the wrong way.
The hosts should have had a third after Harrison’s poor clearance ended with Andre passing to Strand Larsen, who could not get on top of it.
Wolves punished Harrison for another bad clearance a few minutes later, however, the Shrews keeper played the ball straight to Strand Larsen, who managed to slot it into an empty net from distance to restore his side’s two-goal lead.
The Ligue 2 relegation battlers came close to getting their second, but Sam Clucas’ shot from goal was cleared by Hugo Bueno.
And Wolves netted their fourth before the hour mark as some neat play between Arias and Hwang opened up space and the former put it on a plate for Strand Larsen to slot easily into the bottom corner.
Mateus Mane has been a revelation since starting under Rob Edwards and made an instant impact when introduced on the hour mark as he provided a cross for Strand Larsen, who saw his header brilliantly saved by Harrison.
Wolves showed no signs of mercy either and after Fer Lopez hit the post from distance, Arokodare collected the rebound and passed it to Gomes, who headed in before Arokodare headed home David Moller Wolfe’s cross to end a dominant afternoon.