McCarthy delighted with Wolves´ morale

Mick McCarthy defiantly boasted of Wolves’ excellent morale after their 1-0 win at home to Birmingham on Sunday.

Wolves are struggling at the wrong end of the table, and McCarthy has spent the season battling suggestions that his team are unable to cope with the demands of a relegation dog fight.

But after Stephen Hunt’s goal secured an invaluable win over local rivals Birmingham at Molineux, the former Ireland and Sunderland boss insisted he has the utmost confidence in the mental strength of his players.

“I’m pleased, of course I am,” McCarthy said.

“We’ve come away with a 1-0 victory but Wayne (Hennessey) has not made any saves of note to be fair. It was an all-round good performance.”

“I’m delighted with our team’s performance, we played well. People keep asking me about team spirit and morale and I keep saying `It’s good’.”

“I’m not sure people believe me but I think performances like that speak volumes for it.”

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish pinpointed the additional motivation of the relegation-threatened Wolves players as the difference in a tight encounter.

“We never really started until the substitutes came on. We had a go at Wolves then and it was the first time we pinned them back,” McLeish said.

“But I think you have to give Wolves a lot of credit, they lost some key players and I didn’t know whether psychologically that put some complacency in their heads.”

“But at the same time I did say to the players that Wolves really had a cause, the fact they’re in the bottom three is one and then losing those big players I’m sure gave every other player an extra 10 percent.”

“It was a poor performance. If you’ve seen us in all our games this season you’ll see that was out of character but you have to give Wolves credit.”