Michael Kightly admitted Wolves showed Manchester United “too much respect” as they made a quiet exit from the Carling Cup at Old Trafford.

A shadow United side beat a mixed Wolves outfit 1-0 courtesy of Danny Welbeck’s excellently-worked 66th minute goal, despite playing with 10 men for the last hour of the third round tie after Fabio Da Silva’s dismissal.

“Manchester United are probably the best team in the world, but we showed them too much respect and it was disappointing,” said Kightly, who was one of four players to make his comeback from injury along with Kevin Foley, Jody Craddock and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

“After they went down to 10 men, we should have taken the game to them more. We had a few chances and are disappointed we didn’t take them. Then they showed their quality and scored.

“Going down to 10 men seemed to galvanise them, but it was up to us to take the game on.

“I don’t think we did that and we didn’t change the way we played from when they went to 10 men.

“The way we played in the first half, we competed with them, so we’re disappointed we didn’t get something.

“It might be a positive that we ran them close, but we can’t afford to be overawed by teams like that.

“We’re a Premier League side who deserve to be here and need to show that mentality every game.”

Kightly’s bright showing was a rare positive for Wolves after he came through his first senior outing for six months unscathed.

“I felt good and quite sharp and didn’t have any problems,” he said. “I’m going to get sharper game by game, but it felt good.

“It was another 70-odd minutes under my belt and the more minutes I get, the better I’ll play.

“It’s about trying to give the gaffer something to think about.”