Patience the key for Wolves´ survival

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy says his players have to stay calm if they are to win the seven points they need to stay in the Premier League.

They head into Sunday’s local derby with West Brom in the relegation zone with just three games remaining.

And McCarthy is mindful of being too cavalier having been at Cardiff on Monday to watch them blow the chance of an automatic Premier League promotion spot by losing to Middlesbrough.

“Patience and being considered is vital, and if ever that was evident it was at Cardiff. Their players thought ‘it’s vital we get the win’ and ‘we have to get goals’ and ‘we have to push forward’,” he said.

“Suddenly they were one down and it made the incentive to go forward even greater. Then they were two down and the incentive became even greater to go forward, push and force it.”

“Next it was 3-0, the game was finished and they had no chance of going up automatically.”

“That is the last thing we want to do. So play sensibly, play against West Bromwich Albion do not blame your own mistakes.”

A Steven Fletcher penalty put Wolves ahead at Birmingham City last weekend but they were pegged back by the hosts. Despite Birmingham having Craig Gardner dismissed in the second half, Wolves were only able to get a point.

McCarthy argues that it was a point well-earned and remains bullish about his team’s chances of avoiding the drop.

“There were two schools of thought after the Birmingham game and I take the one that it was a good point,” he said.

“We’d have taken a point going there and despite the fact they had ten men they were still a threat. We gave them a goal and didn’t really create them.”

“But it is difficult against 10 men and even more difficult when you’re in the bottom three and it is not easy then to get the ball down and pass it and open teams up and create and make it expansive.”

“To be fair, Birmingham weren’t going to come on to us anyway. They sat in and they’re pretty good at that.”

“We are far from in great shape – being in great shape would be on 41 points and being out of it. Realistically though we can still do it.”

“We took a point, we’ve moved on and we’ll see what we get out of the next three games.”

Wolves will be without defenders Ronald Zubar (back) and Steven Mouyokolo (knee), midfielder David Edwards (back) and forwards Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (hamstring) and Kevin Doyle (knee).