United quickly opened the scoring at Molineux when Nani, ignoring calls from Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, teased George Elokobi before firing a left shot past Wayne Hennessey.
They almost made it two moments later but Rooney failed to trouble Hennessey after good work from Berbatov, and it was downhill for United from there.
Slack defending from the visitors gifted Wolves the equaliser on 10 minutes, George Elokobi powering home a header after the Red Devils defence had failed to get organised for a corner.
Berbatov fashioned an opening for himself with some trickery only to produce a tame shot, but Wolves took control from there and Edwin Van der Sar had to be alert to prevent Jamie O’Hara netting a debut goal.
Nenad Milijas’ goal-bound free-kick was deflected wide by Nemanja Vidic as the hosts again went close, but they would not be denied a second and it came when Kevin Doyle beat team-mate Elokobi to the ball to head home.
Nani headed over and blazed high into the stand as United’s frustrations grew, and it showed when Paul Scholes needlessly handled a chance he could have perhaps got his head to late on.