McCarthy thrilled with ´great start´ for Wolves

Wolverhampton boss Mick McCarthy was delighted with his side’s performance in their win over Blackburn on Saturday.

Argentine Mauro Formica had put Rovers ahead before goals from Steven Fletcher and Stephen Ward gave Wolves the win at Ewood Park on the first day of the English Premier League season.

McCarthy said the performance was there to go with the result.

“It’s a great start. You can’t ask for much more than that,” he said.

“I’m pleased with the performance as well because I thought we played well.”

“It’s kind of known if you go behind in the Premier League you don’t often come back, especially away from home, but I thought it was the first bit of quality we produced for the equaliser.”

“The game was end to end and quite an open game.”

Ward’s goal, which proved to be the winner, came after Kevin Doyle had been denied by goalkeeper Paul Robinson from the penalty spot.

Meanwhile, Blackburn manager Steve Kean bemoaned a lack of personnel in defence, which he said forced him to play players out of position.

“It’s difficult because we’ve lost four of our central defenders from the last game of last season,” Kean said.

“We’ve lost Phil Jones. Christopher Samba, Ryan Nelsen and Gael Givet weren’t available, so you have to then try and re-jig it and we put Steven N’Zonzi as a centre-back and I thought he did well considering he’s never played there before.”

“We put him at the back, which is out of position for him, and then we lost Brett Emerton on the pitch – so it’s like a double-edged sword.”

“When we went level that showed a little bit and we caught out a little bit with personnel filling in, in certain places.”

Rovers will be looking to rebound from the loss when they travel to Aston Villa in their next Premier League outing, while Wolves host Fulham.