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Chris Martin's brace took his Derby goal tally for the season to seven

Derby County climbed into the Championship play-off zone for the first time under new boss Paul Clement as they proved too good for Wolves.

Chris Martin's two first-half strikes - a 20-yard curler and a powerful header - came either side of Benik Afobe's well-struck reply for Wolves.

Martin then had a penalty saved by Emiliano Martinez but Bradley Johnson's soft strike made it 3-1 at the break.

Jonhny Russell struck a fourth before Adam Le Fondre made it 4-2.

Le Fondre's looping volley, from substitute Sheyi Ojo's knockdown, sneaked in despite home keeper Scott Carson getting his fingertips to it.

It made up for the penalty shout Wolves did not get before the break when his goalbound shot was blocked by former Wolves defender Jason Shackell's elbow.

Benik Afobe's equaliser was his third goal in two games

Added to that, the home side's second goal could have been ruled out as Martin levered himself into the air off Kortney Hause's shoulders.

And Johnson knew little about the third goal, which hit his outstretched left boot after Wolves failed to clear the Russell corner which resulted from Martinez saving Martin's penalty, awarded for Danny Batth's foul on Tom Ince.

Kenny Jackett's men did come up with a well-worked training ground move for their first goal when Afobe lashed in James Henry's corner to cancel out Martin's early strike.

But the visitors were generally second best, no more so than when sustained Derby pressure resulted in Russell toe poking in from 12 yards for the Rams' fourth.

Le Fondre's goal gave the scoreline a fairer reflection but few would argue that Derby deserved all three points as they stretched their current run to 16 points out of a possible 18 to climb to sixth.

Wolves, who had won both their previous two games 3-0 prior to the international break, have dropped a place to 11th this weekend, now five points adrift of the play-off places.

Derby head coach Paul Clement told BBC Sport:

"Our best performance of the season. We've had some good first halves and some good second halves, but this time we were solid throughout and were deserved victors.

"Chris Martin put in the best performance I've seen from a Championship centre forward from the games I've seen this season. A great finish for the first, a brave header for the second and he led the line well.

"It was a shame he didn't finish off the penalty for what would have been a first-half hat-trick. But he was a well-deserved man of the match.

"Against a good side, it was also a great response from the team to come back and score the way we did following the penalty miss. We could have gone in at half-time on a low. But to make it 3-1 was a big moment."

Wolves head coach Kenny Jackett told BBC Sport:

"Derby were strong and take some stopping, but our defending was poor. We didn't work hard enough to put in enough blocks and cut down things at source.

"There were too many key moments when we didn't defend well enough. They had too many shots and far too many of them we gifted them.

"Their penalty was the right decision. I also thought we should have had one for the handball, but it would be hard to get those sort of decisions here.

"Our keeper's held his hand up for the second goal. He should have left it to Kortney Hause to deal with, but he's a good keeper and he'll learn from that."