Mick McCarthy braced for end of season showdown for Wolves

Apr 28 2008 By Paul Berry

MICK McCarthy is primed for a “nervy” last day of the season as Wolves bid to overhaul either Watford or Crystal Palace to reach the play-offs.

But the manager insists all focus must remain on making sure Wolves take three points against Plymouth before thinking about favours from elsewhere.

“I’m not a gambling man so I don’t do odds,” McCarthy said after Saturday’s draw at Coventry.

“Let’s try and beat Plymouth, I haven’t changed that mantra for a long time about winning our next game and our next game is Plymouth.

“It will be nervy for everybody, there’s two we can catch I believe.

“If we don’t win our game there’s no chance so let’s try and win our game and see where we are at the end of it.

“We said we wanted to still be in it for the last game and that’s what’s happened, we are in for a tense last few days.”

McCarthy finished up disappointed Wolves didn’t take all three points at the Ricoh, and explained his reasons for moving Michael Kightly into a more central position towards the end of the first half.

“Having been quite comfortable we conceded a bad goal which enabled them to play one up front and string men across the middle,” he said.

“We probably didn’t move the ball around quick enough and we made a couple of changes just before the end of first half which helped.

“They’d got an extra man in midfield and we were trying to pass through them without any joy so putting Michael in behind Sylvan (Ebanks-Blake) caused them a problem.”