Marc Guéhi scores for Crystal Palace and prevents Wolves from winning their first win of the season Premier League

How many chances will Gary O'Neil have left to claim that elusive first division win of the season? Wolves, who deservedly trailed when Trevoh Chalobah opened the scoring, managed to squander the lead in the second half after Jorgen Strand Larsen and João Gomes turned the tables on Crystal Palace with two goals in five minutes. Maybe the Wolves thought the hard work was done.

For long periods Wolves played like a team down on their luck and given they sacked their first set-piece coach last month, things didn't look good for O'Neil when both Palace goals came from dead balls were scored and Marc Guéhi missed his opponent. Substitute Goncalo Guedes, at a corner, to score a point. In the end, O'Neil was – unusually – grateful to the VAR, which supported referee Anthony Taylor's decision to disallow Jean-Philippe Mateta's 96th-minute goal for a foul on José Sá. Crucially, O'Neil may have lost local support.

Wolves ended up bottom of the table after Southampton's first win of the season and the historical statistics were also ominous. Any Premier League team that scored less than three points in its first ten games was relegated. At this point in the season even the infamous Derby team, who were relegated with a meager 11 points, had six points to their name. O'Neil remains optimistic but after a difficult schedule that saw them face seven of the current top nine, this game always seemed like the right place for a pick-me-up. This is especially true given that Palace, who named two goalkeepers on a young bench, were without Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton after the players sustained serious injuries in their impressive midweek Carabao Cup win at Aston Villa.

An early Palace chance, which culminated in Wolves centre-back Craig Dawson making a desperate block, did little to ease the nervousness of the home fans. Wolves needed a break, but Will Hughes took advantage of a loose pass from Pablo Sarabia and Ismaïla Sarr, played by Daichi Kamada, stormed forward, Palace were now 3 on 3. Hughes came into the box for the cutback and sent a first attempt goal. Sá dove, Dawson throwing his body in the way. If that caused nerves in the Wolves defense, it was nothing compared to what followed just after the half hour mark. Guéhi headed the ball over the goal from a short corner and Chalaboh, unmarked three meters in front of the goal, tried to fire a shot into the goal. Chalaboh attempted a right-footed attempt, but instead the ball hit his standing left leg. Jean-Phillipe Mateta then shot the rebound into the goal, but it fell into Chalobah. Mateta could only smile in disbelief.

Mateta caused problems for Wolves but the hosts eventually settled into a low-rent game. Matheus Cunha fired the first shot wide of the goal, then converted and passed the ball to Sarabia with a nice diving pass. Sarabia tried to outwit Dean Henderson, but the Palace goalkeeper didn't buy his dummy and instead brought the ball to safety with his left glove. Sarabia looked up at the sky, the Palace fans in attendance chanting Henderson's name. Henderson was again in the way when Sarabia took a one-on-one lead three minutes after the break, again played by Cunha. Sarabia opted for power and fired a shot into the goal that hit Henderson right in the face.

The wolves were listless, the palace was adventurous, and the visitors got their reward every hour on the hour. Kamada played a free kick short to Hughes, whose left cross flew into the penalty area. Strand Larsen headed forward but Sá had also made progress to attack the ball and so Wolves offered Chalobah a chance at the back post with the goal gaping. Chalobah grabbed the ball with his chest and shot it into the goal from a tight angle, a beautiful finish. The Wolves failed, two minutes later Sarr shot over the ball. O'Neil made a triple substitution but struggled to stop the bleeding. Then Sarr shot another attempt wide of the goal.

Cunha took a point in the last game in Brighton and equalized here. The Brazilian chested down a diagonal pass from Santiago Bueno, pushed the ball out of his feet with his next touch and then freed Strand Larsen to his right to do the rest, the Norwegian sliding his finish through the legs of Henderson .

Take off suddenly. Wolves then turned the game on its head when Gomes side-footed a shot deep into the corner at the end of a clever team move. Substitute Mario Lemina saved Kamada with a pirouette, Cunha pushed forward and Guedes, another substitute, passed for Gomes. Unfortunately for O'Neil, it wasn't the final act.