Wolves defender Christophe Berra believes boss Mick McCarthy’s rant sparked by the ‘well done’ remark after the Chelsea defeat shows how far the team have come.

Last Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Premier League leaders saw Didier Drogba’s clinical second goal end the contest, but only after goalkeeper Petr Cech had twice superbly denied the hosts while opposite number Marcus Hahnemann never had a save to make.

McCarthy was raging afterwards at a comment to Wolves in the dressing room area, insisting it wasn’t a case of ‘well done’ because they had lost.

But Berra reckons that frustration can only be a good thing, because it shows they weren’t happy about not getting at least a point against the champions-elect.

He said: “In the past we’ve done well but got beat by better teams, but there comes a point when we’ve got to start turning these performances into victories or at least a point.

“So for the gaffer to be so annoyed at someone saying ‘well done’ after being beat by Chelsea is a good sign, because we were disappointed not to get something from the game against the league leaders.

“They’re arguably the best team in the league, we matched them for long periods and their keeper was the star for them and made some excellent saves – we’d played so well and not taken our chances.

“Getting beat in any game is disappointing, especially having played so well. But there were a lot of positives to take out of it which we’ll learn from and we’ll try to carry on from where we left off.

“Our thoughts are on Bolton and we’ve got to put a performance in.”

It was Berra that allowed Drogba to waltz through for the second goal after allowing Cech’s long kick to bounce, while Hahnemann appeared to make the Ivory Coast marksman’s task easier by racing off his line.

But the £2.3million defender insists the players have identified what went wrong and are confident it won’t happen again.

He said: “These things happen – we held a high line and tried to squeeze a bit and we got caught out. Their keeper launched it, the ball bounced over the back and it was a mistake by us.

“From previous kicks, we’d headed it out but that time we took our chances. We’ve looked at the video and we know where we should have done better. It was a poor goal to concede from a defensive point of view and we have to learn from it.”

Bolton haven’t scored in 505 minutes in the Premier League but Berra believes their record doesn’t mean they can rest on their laurels.

He said: “We can’t afford to look at their record – they’re a dangerous team and they’ve got good players who can score. So we’ve got to be 110 per cent on our game – if not, we’ll get punished because on their own turf, they’ll come at us.

“The way Owen Coyle played when he was at Burnley was very much a pass and move style of football.

“It’s going to take time for Bolton to do that but they’ve got good strikers and Kevin Davies is a real handful who has given the best defenders in the Premier League problems.

“We played against Ivan Klasnic when we beat them 2-1 at our place and I thought he was quite a clever player.

“But whoever is playing tomorrow, we’ll have to be on our toes – for a fight, and be ready to defend.”

But Berra believes a similar performance to the Chelsea one will see Wolves emerge from the Reebok unbeaten.

He said: “They’ll be thinking they’re a bigger team than us and they can beat us. But we’re confident and if we play the same as we did against Chelsea, I’m sure we’ll get a result.”

With three points separating six teams above Portsmouth, the former Hearts stopper admits survival could come down to mental strength.

He said: “There are six or seven teams fighting it out. It’s going to go to the wire but if you’d asked us at the start of the season whether we’d have taken this position, we would.

“If we keep putting in the performances, I’m sure we’ll pick up the points. There will be nerves if it comes down to the last match of the season, but there are 12 games left and we’ve been doing well.

“We’re a confident group and we’ve got a great team spirit. The gaffer changed the system to 4-5-1 and so far it’s worked. We’ve kept a few clean sheets recently and we’ve limited teams to very few chances.”

With five and a half League games without a goal and having been dumped out of the FA Cup 4-0 at Tottenham in midweek, confidence isn’t expected to be high at Bolton and Wolves will be looking to exploit any nerves in the Reebok camp.

Berra said: “It’s always harder at home, you’re more likely to see a team become nervy because fans have got expectations. We’ll try to put our game to them and see what happens.

“It’s a game we think we can win and we’ll try to get three points.”