Hans Segers was Wolves' star turn again as he produced a dramatic penalty save for the second successive weekend.

After last Saturday's brilliant FA Cup quarter-final stop from Leeds' Jimmy Hasselbaink, the Dutchman this time broke the heart of Crewe skipper Shaun Smith as he dived to his right to beat away a 73rd minute kick, conceded by Kevin Muscat with a foul on Colin Little.

Segers, who had to wait 20 months for his Wolves first team debut, during which time he had to face match-fixing charges at Winchester Crown Court, confirmed his hero status at Molineux with the diving stop that gave him his second successive clean sheet and his side a second consecutive 1-0 win.

But it was never easy against Dario Gradi's young team, who restricted Wolves to a handful of clear openings and impressively absorbed long periods of pressure.

The visitors started brightly and Gareth Whalley should have done better than to curl a shot straight at Segers from the edge of the box.

The keeper also went down low to his left to dive on a centre by Kevin Street while Wolves saw Simon Osborn fire over from 25 yards after delaying his shot on a previous occasion.

But Wolves scored what proved to be the winner in the 35th minute when Lee Naylor crossed from the right and, after Don Goodman and Dougie Freedman had helped the ball on, Robbie Keane touched the ball over the line from three yards.

It was Keane's ninth goal of the season and the perfect way to celebrate his midweek call-up for the first time to the full Republic of Ireland squad.

Carl Robinson saw a shot blocked by Lee Unsworth before the break and Wolves had most of the second-half play as Keane again, Muscat and substitute Steve Bull went close, the latter after Goodman had seen a header blocked on the line by Whalley.

Wolves were never totally convincing after losing four of their previous six League games while Crewe, despite one well-saved effort from Little early in the second-half, were confined to a counter-attacking game as they sought their eighth First Division away win of the season.

Teams:

Wolverhampton: Segers, Muscat, Naylor, Froggatt (Simpson 69), Williams, Curle, Goodman, Robinson, Keane, Freedman (Bull 75), Osborn.

Subs Not Used: Atkins.

Goals: Keane 35.

Crewe: Kearton, Bignot, S. Smith, Unsworth, Walton, Charnock (Lunt 80), Street, Whalley, Anthrobus (P. Smith 64), Johnson, Little.

Subs Not Used: Lightfoot.

Att: 24,272

Ref: G B Frankland (Middlesbrough).