McCarthy pleased to win ´the right way´

Wolverhampton manager Mick McCarthy said their win over Fulham should prove he does not deploy dirty tactics.

Fulham captain Danny Murphy laid into McCarthy’s men after a bad tempered meeting last season saw striker Bobby Zamora break his leg after a rough Karl Henry tackle.

The bad blood from that fixture ebbed away as goals from Kevin Doyle and Matt Jarvis on Sunday saw the hosts claim consecutive victories to momentarily top the Premier League table – before Manchester City leaped ahead of them on goal difference.

“What is pleasing is that last year we gained a reputation for kicking Fulham off the park which was so unjust,” McCarthy said.

“I’ve really enjoyed watching my team play football against them today and beating them in the right way.”

“It’s nothing to do with (Fulham manager) Martin Jol or the players, it was just that incident last year that gave us a disservice. So, it was pleasing to put that to bed.”

The win saw Wolves reach the summit momentarily, and although it was the first time the club had sat top of the pile since the early 1970s, McCarthy moved to temper any jubilation.

“I’m not bothered about the league position. We start bottom every year alphabetically, but I’m not bothered,” he said.

“Of course, I am delighted, (but it’s just) two games. I know how hard this league can come back and bite you on the backside and suddenly you can look very silly if you get carried away crowing about it, so I won’t.”

Fulham looked sluggish after their midweek exertions in the Europa League, but manager Jol was not about to use their cluttered fixture schedule as an excuse just yet.

“Even if it is (a packed schedule), you have to play as you need the results to do well. If you talk about October then maybe a little evidence of being fatigued but not today at the start of the season,” Jol said.

“The only thing is, you have to use your best players all the time and that is probably the only thing. We need a couple of players to probably get the results even away from home.”

“There is a part of me that thinks we can do well in Europe and another part that knows it is probably almost impossible to do well and get to the final as it happened two years ago.”

“Of course, if you start playing all the competitions in England you could probably do without the Europa League but we are in it and hopefully we can get through as it raised the profile of the club and players.”