McCarthy banks on Wolves' Matt Jarvis to scare Birmingham City

Nov 28 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MICK McCarthy will look to Matt Jarvis to provide the width to scare Blues.

The winger was back in the fray for the trip to Chelsea last week after falling below Michael Kightly in the pecking order ever since the home defeat to Portsmouth.

Jarvis did not disappoint at Stamford Bridge and will be set loose at Molineux tomorrow.

“I thought he was magnificent on Saturday and he did exactly what I wanted him to do and the way he played went exactly the way we’d tried it in training,” McCarthy enthused.

“He started well and got behind their full-back, which he was always going to do because of his pace – they were never going to catch him.

“On a different day, we might have scored from his deliveries and then it could have looked a lot better.

“He was excellent and having played like that against Chelsea, let’s hope he can do the same again.”

McCarthy meanwhile has no regrets about going public with his feelings that Wolves are already in the thick of a relegation battle barely a third of the way through the season.

“There was no point messing about,” he said.

“The players have to embrace it, understand it, recognise it, and play with that.

“You can end up almost with a fear of saying it, not wanting to mention the ‘R’ word. That’s rubbish because that’s what we’re fighting against.

“If we are in the bottom two after 13 games that’s where we are, so let’s understand it and recognise it and deal with it.”