Matheus Cunha rescues rare point for Wolves as Brighton are held at home

Winless Wolves snatched only their second point of the Premier League season after Matheus Cunha’s stoppage-time effort rescued a dramatic 2-2 draw at Brighton.

Albion were on course to climb to fourth in the table following goals from Danny Welbeck and Evan Ferguson.

But Rayan Ait-Nouri set up a nervy finish by halving the deficit in the 88th minute before Cunha fired home via a deflection in the third minute of stoppage time to move Wanderers off the bottom of the table.

Brighton only had themselves to blame for the late collapse as they squandered a four-on-one situation, prior to being punished by the leveller on the counter-attack.

Wolves manager Gary O’Neil did little to hide his sense of injustice following last weekend’s controversial last-gasp 2-1 loss to Manchester City and could hardly contain his delight at full-time.

Wolves leapfrog Southampton in the relegation zone, while Albion remain fifth after being denied a third consecutive top-flight win.

Brighton suffered a blow before kick-off when captain Lewis Dunk, who was set to make his 250th Premier League appearance, injured his calf in the warm-up and was replaced in the starting XI by Igor Julio.

Albion’s rejigged backline was carved open inside nine minutes as Wolves passed up a golden opportunity.

Cunha easily escaped Joel Veltman down the left but, after pulling the ball back, the unmarked Tommy Doyle, who scored on this ground last month in a 3-2 Carabao Cup loss, wastefully side-footed over.

Wolves were on the back foot for large parts of the first half and required a fine save from goalkeeper Jose Sa to deny a long-range drive from impressive Seagulls midfielder Carlos Baleba.

The lowly visitors looked to have done enough to go into the break level