McCarthy has no case for defence

WOLVES V NORWICH 17 GD 03 Mick McCarthy has warned Wolves’ promotion challenge will “self-destruct” if they continue to ship goals like they did in last night’s 3-3 draw against Norwich.

Wolves twice led but were once again pegged back by poor defensive mistakes as they failed to hold on to a lead for the fifth time in seven games, picking up just seven points in that sequence.

“If we continue to give goals away like we did last night, we’ll self-destruct,” fumed McCarthy.

“Our defending was awful. Our response was fantastic.

“The spirit of the players is great. There were some good points and bad points.”

McCarthy admitted the sloppy way his side defended showed why he had invested over £2m in new centre-back Christophe Berra.

But he revealed the former Hearts man couldn’t have played as he hadn’t done enough preparation work with his new team-mates.

“That’s why I signed him. I could probably hear people when talking about our defending asking why was he sat in the stands?” said the boss. “But he’s not kicked a football in anger with any of his new team-mates, apart from a little five-a-side on Sunday.

“He didn’t even know all of their names. As a winger or a centre forward you can play off the cuff, but not as a centre back trying to fit into a back four.

“He’s had no time to work with the team as a back four or defensive unit.

“We’ll get in some training between now and the weekend.”

McCarthy was disappointed for hero Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, who failed to end up on the winning side, despite scoring his first senior hat-trick.

“Sylvan should be going home with a winning matchball,” he said. “I can’t think of anything better than a hat-trick to be a high point and there were some real good points in it and some real low ones.”

McCarthy admitted his side should have won.

He said: “It was two points dropped. Even giving them a goal as awful as we did, we still had chances before half-time.

“It was a great goal by Carl Cort, but we were in possession and then we lost it.

“They should have scored a third before we got back in front and to get in front and then concede from a corner the way we did was dreadful.

“The first goal was an error and the second we didn’t keep the ball and were wide open.

“We started awfully in the second half before producing a great response.

“If you’re looking for a positive it was that response because we got ourselves in front and were playing really well. We should have gone on to win.”

The Wolves boss said he would never vilify the players who committed the mistakes that led to the goals.

“I point the finger but I don’t point it publicly ever and you wouldn’t expect me to,” he said.

McCarthy admitted his over-riding emotion was frustration.

“There was the whole range of emotions in that game, culminating in the frustration of not taking three points – especially when we got our noses in front at 3-2,” he said.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion just because we’re playing Watford and Norwich at home we’re going to get six points.”

See Also: