At the end of a chaotic Carabao Cup tie with Chelsea, Vitor Pereira and his Wolves players stood on the edge of the penalty area and applauded the South Bank, who responded in kind.
They had been beaten, again, yet in many senses this 4-3 defeat felt like a victory.
Certainly for Pereira, who for the second time in four days heard an angry fanbase call for his head.
Barely 72 hours earlier the head coach had stood face-to-face with those same supporters, mirroring their fury after a 3-2 home defeat to Burnley.
This time the mood was different. Wolves, 3-0 down at half-time and apparently on course for the kind of hammering which even in a cup match might force the hand of even the most reluctant of executive chairmen, came storming back in the second half and ended the game pushing for the leveller which would have taken the fourth round tie to penalties.
There was plenty to still be critical about. Wolves, a team who concede far too many easy goals, let in four pretty dreadful ones, the last of which proved the clincher when Jamie Gittens volleyed home for the visitors in the 89th minute, before David Moller Wolfe got his second of the game to bring the tie back to life again in stoppage time.
You might also give pause ponder, considering Wolves’ improvement and Chelsea’s frailty after the break, Pereira’s decision to make 11 changes to his line-up which, owing to the summer’s lopsided squad building, saw both Emmanuel Agbadou and Fer Lopez play in central midfield during the first half.