Wolves battled to their first win in nine Premier League games on Saturday, coming from behind to beat 10-man Queens Park Rangers 2-1.
Bobby Zamora marked his debut for the hosts with a fine finish after quarter of an hour, rifling Shaun Wright-Phillips lay-off past a despairing Wayne Hennessey.
But the game changed at the 34-minute mark, when new QPR signing Djibril Cisse was given his marching orders for remonstrating with Wolves' Roger Johnson after a poor tackle.
Mick McCarthy's side made the most of their numerical advantage, with second-half goals from Matt Jarvis and Kevin Doyle snatching a vital three points.
QPR began confidently in possession and pressed Wolves deep in their own half.
Adel Taarabt – recalled following his return from the Africa Cup of Nations – played a neat one-two on the edge of the box with Zamora, but his shot flew just wide of the Wolves goal.
Just as Wolves began to play their way into the encounter, QPR carved out something special.
Cisse collected the ball on the left side of the box and clipped a nicely weighted ball over the Wolves defence for the onrushing Wright-Phillips.
The diminutive winger flicked the ball back inside to Zamora, who slammed the ball past Hennessey for the opener.
Wolves reacted well and came close a couple of times, most notably as Steven Fletcher's free-kick sailed just wide.
Emmanuel Frimpong limped off for Wolves with a knee injury following a clash with Joey Barton and minutes later Cisse was dismissed for grabbing Johnson round the throat after being scythed down from behind, much to the dismay of the Loftus Road faithful.
QPR led 1-0 at the break, and Mick McCarthy reacted positively at half-time, introducing a third striker in the form of Kevin Doyle for Richard Stearman, and it paid immediate dividends.
Doyle collected the ball in the wide right position and sent a teasing cross across the box. The ball evaded the QPR defence, but not Jarvis at the back post and his shot was too good for Paddy Kenny in the QPR goal.
Wolves piled on the pressure and Mark Hughes' home team seemed powerless to stop the onslaught.
It was only the presence of Anton Ferdinand that prevented Fletcher getting a goal, as he hacked the Scot's goal-bound prod off the line.
At the 71-minute mark Jamie O'Hara drove toward the QPR penalty area and fired a ball into Doyle.
The pass took a nick off substitute Sylvan Ebanks-Blake but Doyle did well to control, turning onto his left, and from 10 yards out the Irishman struck his shot low and across Kenny to give the away side a deserved lead.
Taarabt, on his return, came close to levelling with a 30-yard pile driver, but Welshman Hennessey flew through the air to produce the kind of fingertip stop that must be a contender for save of the season.
The home side's best chance of an equaliser came on the 90th minute but Ferdinand lacked the killer instinct to turn Wright-Phillips' cross home from 18 yards, skewing the ball just wide.