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‘Out of darkness cometh light.’ That was the message on the banners stretched across the middle of the South Bank at Molineux before Wolverhampton Wanderers began their Championship campaign against Blackburn Rovers.

The meaning was plain enough. Wolves endured a desperately poor relegation from the Premier League in 2025-26, effectively abandoned by the very people who were meant to sustain them. Now 2026-27 brings a fresh start. Fresh hope. Fresh powerbrokers. Fresh manager.

Yet the start of every new season tends to expose one of football’s enduring myths. The Wolves fans streaming into Molineux on a sweltering Friday evening, dressed proudly in gold, were not thinking about what division they were in. At least not on this night.

Beginning again from scratch can bring either joy or despair in their harshest forms. For long spells, this opening evening looked as though it might go badly for Wolves, who took the lead but then fell behind against a Blackburn side expected to improve under returning manager Tony Mowbray.

One of the threats relegated teams face from well-established Championship clubs is their toughness and know-how. Blackburn showed both qualities in the West Midlands in their opening match of the season.

For Wolves, 2026-27 will be a stern examination. The standards are demanding; while not everyone is convinced they will bounce straight back to the Premier League, that expectation could be heard repeatedly in conversations outside the stadium without any need to listen too hard.

Teams coming down from the top flight do have certain edges over other promotion contenders, but when relegation follows a catastrophic season, recovery is not always straightforward.

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The man entrusted with overseeing that recovery is Cesar Peixoto, the 46-year-old former Porto midfielder. This is his first managerial post outside Portugal, and he never played a competitive game beyond Portugal either.

Peixoto said afterwards that Wolves had wanted all three points from the 2-2 draw with Blackburn. He was not satisfied with one, although his side may have been fortunate even to claim that. Blackburn were still ahead when the match moved into stoppage time.

The goals Wolves conceded highlighted an area of weakness that rival managers can be expected to target in every Championship game until Peixoto finds a solution. Understandably, he was not excessively alarmed after only one match.

Even so, it was an obvious and repeatable pattern that led to both Blackburn goals.

Each came from a ball played into the penalty area right in front of the goalkeeper, and each was finished first time by a player positioned in the zone ice hockey followers would call the blue paint.

Sean McLoughlin cleverly guided a header past Dan Bentley to bring the visitors level. Then Andri Gudjohnsen converted Oladapo Afolayan’s ball across goal to put Blackburn in front. Both situations could have been defended. They were not. From Blackburn’s attacking point of view they were good finishes, but from Wolves’ perspective they were troubling.

‘Out of darkness, cometh light.’

Searching for a goal, Peixoto turned to one of Molineux’s best-loved figures. Just weeks after appearing in a home World Cup, Mexico forward Raul Jimenez made his first Championship appearance at what feels like his other home.

Now 35, Jimenez followed Wolves into the second tier after his contract at Fulham ran out. Supporters at Molineux know exactly what a striker with 55 Premier League goals brings, but only part of Jimenez’s story at Wolves can ever be captured in writing.

The Mexico striker had provided a commemorative scarf for every supporter in the South Bank. That says much about the place Jimenez holds at Wolves. The surge of excitement when he entered the match was unmistakable, and Peixoto was rewarded for giving the crowd the moment they wanted.

After coming on in place of the highly rated young winger Matheus Mane, Jimenez immediately did the things Jimenez is known for.

He competed for flick-ons. He got into the box and tried to force a goal, sticking out a leg at anything small, round and rolling that came near him. As ever, he made sure defenders knew he was around, but the first goal of his second spell at Wolves also felt familiar for another reason.

Mowbray and Blackburn objected to the stoppage-time penalty awarded for Ryan Alebiosu’s handball, but once it had been ruled that the offence took place inside the area, there was never much doubt about what would happen next in front of a stand filled with Jimenez scarves.

At that moment, it genuinely made no difference whether Jimenez was scoring in the Premier League, the Championship, League One or anywhere else.