Wolves defenders Michael Mancienne and Christophe Berra have been backed to boss the bullies in a vote of confidence as the top centre-back pairing.

Boss Mick McCarthy believes they can handle the physical side of the Premier League and will pick them ahead of Jody Craddock and Ronald Zubar against Portsmouth tomorrow, despite conceding five goals together in Sunday’s 5-2 harsh defeat at Sunderland.

The manager said: “They help each other. It’s a partnership and they’re a good pairing. Michael and Christophe were great against Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones, who are a real handful.

“Ronald’s training great but he won’t be in the team tomorrow. I don’t think Michael has any problems with the physical side of it at all. I think he deals with it and he was brilliant last week.

“I haven’t seen too many players deal with Kenwyne Jones the way he did.

“People should remember he’s 21. When coaches and managers are discussing how good our players are, I sometimes say: ‘How good were you at 21?’

“Mancienne has been one of our stand-out players. He and Christophe have been terrific. Christophe was marking Michael Turner for Sunderland’s fourth goal but he had a great game and he was excellent against Fulham.

“Whatever the fee was, he’s turned into a very good signing.”