Wolverhampton Wanderers skipper Ruben Neves earned his side a 1-1 draw at Brentford with a stunning equaliser on Saturday but Diego Costa was shown a straight red card and the team stayed in the Premier League’s relegation zone.
Neither side managed a shot on target in a forgettable first half but Brentford defender Ben Mee’s acrobatic volley to open the scoring in the 50th minute sent the home fans into raptures.
Wolves, still to appoint a permanent manager after the sacking of Bruno Lage, were behind for only two minutes though as Nelson Semedo played the ball across to Neves who curled a stunning effort into the corner.
Striker Ivan Toney then squandered a great chance to put Brentford back in front when he headed wide.
A well-earned point for Wolves was tarnished in stoppage time when Costa was shown a straight red card after an altercation with Mee in which he appeared to make contact with his head.
“It’s important we showed that we were up for a fight, even at this stage of the season, that we were prepared to come to these sorts of places and fight and battle for something out of it,” Wolves stand-in manager Steve Davis said.
“I was really pleased with that aspect of our game today.”
Former Chelsea striker Costa will miss three games and Davis said the player had apologised after seeing red for the first time in England.
“He’s an unbelievable competitor and players like that play on the edge, so you have to go with that,” Davis said.
“That’s how they get the best out of themselves. Maybe on this occasion something has occurred, but he has to play on the edge to be the player he is, so you have to accept sometimes that he might get that wrong.”
The result leaves Brentford 11th in the table with 15 points from 13 games, while Wolves are third-from-bottom on 10.