We’re in real trouble, admits McCarthy

Mick McCarthy admits his Wolves side will find it tough to bounce back in their bid for survival in the Premier League after blowing the lead and losing 2-1 to local rivals Birmingham City on Sunday.

Veteran Birmingham City striker Kevin Phillips scored two late goals to leave Wolves without a victory in six league games and just one place off the foot of the table.

McCarthy, who was hoping to celebrate his 51st birthday with a much-needed victory, admitted that he has a difficult task on his hands to inspire his players to put Sunday’s disappointing result to the back of their minds.

“That is the lowest I have seen the dressing room after a game. Football is really cruel at times. It is a great game, but a cruel one. It is fair to say that we did not deserve that.

“The beauty of it is that we have a chance very quickly to get this out of our system against Spurs,” he said, referring to Wolves’ home game against the highflying London outfit on Wednesday.

This latest defeat comes on the back of being dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship strugglers Crystal Palace and McCarthy knows questions will be raised about whether he can keep them in the Premier League.

“We have been written off before this season and we will be written off again. I can’t do much about that,” McCarthy said.

“If we play the same way we did at Palace between now and the end of the season then fair enough, people can write us off. If we show that same kind of spirit we did at Birmingham then it would be remiss of people to do that to us.”

Birmingham’s victory, however, was somewhat overshadowed by an injury to Ecuadorian striker Christian Benitez.

The striker damaged his ankle in a collision with Wolves goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann in the second half and was stretchered off.

Blues manager Alex McLeish will face an anxious 24-hour wait before receiving the results of the doctor’s report.

“He will have to have a scan on Monday and we will know a little bit more then. It looked bad at the time, but we hope it is not as bad as it first looked,” McLeish said.

The loss of Benitez could force McLeish to give former England international bPhillips only his second start of the season against West Ham United at Upton Park on Wednesday night.

Phillips, 36, returned from a three-week layoff with a groin problem to strike twice and remind McLeish of his goalscoring prowess.

“The thing is with Kev is that he will lose all his teeth, go bald and his legs will fade, but he will never lose that instinct to score goals. I wish he would tell me the secret so I could tell the rest of the strikers,” said the Birmingham City manager.

“I have said to him that he will get more game time, because we were not able to bring people into the club in the January window. He has had a spring in his step and he has been in good shape in training,” he added.

“Even if we had got players in the transfer window, I did not want to let Kevin go. I had enquiries from several clubs at the top end of the Championship and in the Premier League, but I wanted him to stay.”