Ten-man Gillingham eased the pressure on manager Andy Hessenthaler with a spirited 1-0 victory against Wolves. Matthew Jarvis turned the ball home after 18 minutes for injury-hit Gillingham's first three points in 10 games.
The Kent side remain rooted in the bottom three, but showed great character to end a seven-match losing streak, despite playing most of the game with 10 men. Wolves are now just four points above their opponents after failing to make the most of their numerical advantage following Ian Cox's first-half dismissal.
The game exploded into live in the 12th minute when centre-half Cox was sent off for a clear professional foul as Kevin Cooper ran across him and headed into the box. Referee Trevor Kettle showed the defender a straight red card after he dragged Cooper to the ground in full flight just outside the box.
That move was probably the best of the match. Wolves captain Mark Kennedy fed Colin Cameron, who in turn released Cooper, with the ball transferred swiftly from inside the Wolves half to the edge of the Gillingham box.
It was the Gills who responded best to the sending off, though, and they went in front six minutes later. Centre-back Joleon Lescott hit right-back Keith Lowe with an attempted clearance and the ball rebounded to the Gills' Senegal international Mamady Sidibe. He quickly fed Jarvis inside the box and the striker turned to shoot home into an unguarded net.
The closest Wolves came to scoring was a diving header from Ki-Hyeon Seol in the first half, but Gills keeper Jason Brown parried it brilliantly at his near post. He also made a reaction one-handed save from Kennedy with 10 minutes remaining, but Gillingham should have been out of sight after 58 minutes.
Sidibe muscled past Lescott into the box but made a mess of his pass to Hessenthaler. The player-manager then bobbled his pass to Darius Henderson, who could do little more than loop a header over the bar.