Angry Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has urged his players to forget plaudits and go for points after being left raging by defeat against Chelsea.

Boss McCarthy fumed after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat that came despite his side forcing the best chances that produced two outstanding saves from goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Weekend results left Wolves where they were – fifth bottom and a point clear of the drop zone with 12 games left – after defeats for all the bottom seven teams, including Saturday’s opponents Bolton.

But the reverse left McCarthy urging a change in culture from being merely satisfied to compete with the top teams to taking points off them.

He said: “It shouldn’t be a foregone conclusion that Chelsea come to Wolves and win. I had a ‘chew’ at the lads, because we lost a game I don’t think we should have done.

“Someone said ‘well done’ when we went in the dressing room but it wasn’t ‘well done’ because we got beat. I said to the lads, ‘don’t think for one minute I’m lambasting the performance because it was good.’

“But I hate saying we played well but we got beat – it hacks me off. We should have had something. We let them off the hook so I was annoyed and disappointed we lost against the champions-elect.

“I’m the very best at giving players heart and belief and looking at the positives.”

But McCarthy believes similar performances over the last 12 games will see Wolves safe.

He said: “We do have to try to remember the good things and take it into the next few games ahead against opposition not as strong as Chelsea. We matched Chelsea in most departments apart from putting the ball in the back of the net.

“We go to Bolton now and we’ve done OK away as well, beating Tottenham and drawing with Stoke and Everton. We’ve still got to play teams around us so we’re masters of our destiny.”

Cech believes Wolves can stay up playing like they did on Saturday.

He said: “They put on a very good performance but they didn’t take their chances, we took ours and that was the difference.

“They’ve been in good form recently and the shape they play is very difficult to score against.”