Mick McCarthy faces night of the long knives

Feb 19 2008

Wolves go in to a crunch game tonight for under-fire boss Mick McCarthy writes PAUL BERRY, the Mail's man at Molineux.

TONIGHT is a night with the potential to be one of the more eventful in recent Molineux history.

Few would have taken a look at the fixture list before the season and thought a February home game with bottom club Scunthorpe could prove so pivotal.

But after more than two months of simmering frustration among fans burst through the surface after the dismal FA Cup capitulation at Cardiff, pivotal is precisely what it is.

A run of 11 points from a possible 39 since Wolves were threatening the Championship's top spot has seen them plummet to 12th, seven adrift of the play-offs.

We are led to believe Mick McCarthy's position is not under threat and that owner Steve Morgan and chief executive Jez Moxey are still backing their man, which is a refreshing approach amid the hire-and-fire culture.

But any slip-up tonight and a few more of those fans still wavering in their support of McCarthy might just defect to the other side.

The manager, of course, knows the drill - that results must improve and he yesterday spoke coolly, calmly and eloquently of the need for three points tonight.

And two poor months after 16 hugely impressive ones does not make McCarthy a bad manager. Twice in Wolves' recent history they have perhaps faced similar midweek Molineux nights to this, when welcoming Grimsby and Derby under Graham Taylor and Dave Jones respectively.

On both occasions they won.

If McCarthy and his players can respond by producing a repeat performance things may just look a little rosier in the garden tomorrow morning.