As the third minute of stoppage time ebbed into the fourth, the Wolverhampton Wanderers matchday announcer begged the cacophonous crowd to stay off the Molineux pitch. He hadn’t a hope of being heeded. Seconds later, the whistle blew and green grass became a heaving, chanting sea of old gold. Wolves had the three points they needed to rejoin the Premier League, just as they did in 2003.

Back then, their life in the Premier League was nasty, brutish and short. This time around, the foundations built by manager Mick McCarthy seem more solid. Top of the Championship since October, they have triumphed despite a mid-season spell of one win in 11 league games, the loss of key personnel with long-term injury and some far from flowing performances.

“I'm speechless,” said chairman Steve Morgan, the Liverpool fan who bought the club for £10 18 months ago. “This means even more to me than Istanbul in the Champions League.” In truth, although yesterday was tense and the victory far from clear-cut, the day had seemed made for young dreamers, made for those who had stayed Old Gold through the years of Division Four darkness and made for those who remember the Stan Cullis era.

Bar the half-full away corner, there was not a spare seat in the house, although so sizzling was the atmosphere that few actually were seated; Wolves’ opponents were managerless and had nothing to play for and the home side’s talismanic top scorer, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, returned from injury to score the decider.

The way Wolves went about their business suggested there would be no slip-ups. Wolves played like wolves, hunting in packs and offering no mercy. Ten minutes in, when Queens Park Rangers goalkeeper Radek Cerny athletically turned away a David Edwards header and then dived smartly to foil Matt Jarvis, it seemed as though nobody would have a busier afternoon than the Czech.

Yet, even with no manager to impress – “Those who make the decisions will make their decision,” sighed caretaker manager Gareth Ainsworth afterwards – QPR did not buckle and when Jody Craddock sliced Dave Jones’ 21st-minute cross high over the bar, anxiety began to creep into Wolves’ game and when Heidar Helguson missed his kick when unmarked 10 yards from goal, the crowd sensed there may be trouble ahead. Wolves took heed and upped the ante. Before half-time Cerny again saved well from Edwards and bravely from Andy Keogh, while Ebanks-Blake emulated Helguson by missing his kick when well placed and Jarvis landed a corner on the bar.

Less than a minute into the second period, Wolves secured promotion. Stephen Ward knocked an innocuous ball forward, Damion Stewart dallied and dithered inside the penalty area. Keogh dispossessed him and squared, Ebanks-Blake tapping home .

That ought to have been that, but moments later a speculative shot from Rowan Vine took an almighty deflection off Christophe Berra, sailed over Hennessy and as Molineux held its breath, hit the underside of the bar and bounced to safety. There were more held breaths when Vine’s glorious through-ball wrong-footed the Wolves defence. Helguson hurtled through alone, only to sidefoot feebly into the onrushing Hennessey’s midriff. From there, it was all over bar the shouting, but what shouting there was.

Star man:David Edwards (Wolves).

WOLVES:Hennessey 6, Ward 7 (Stearman 76min), Craddock 6, Berra 5, Foley 6, Jarvis 7, Henry 6, Edwards 7, Jones 6 (Vokes 66min), Ebanks-Blake 6 (Harewood 60min), Keogh 7.

QPR:Cerny 5, Ramage 6, Gorkss 5, Stewart 4, Connolly 6, Routledge 6, Mahon 6, Lopez 5 (Leigertwood 86min), Cook 5 (Ephraim 64min), Helguson 4, Vine7 (Taarabt 64min).

Referee: J Moss.

Attendance: 27,511.