Former Wolves warrior Alex Rae has a message of hope for Mick McCarthy’s side after insisting – “You’re better than the Class of 2004 that beat Manchester United.”

The hugely popular ex-midfielder lifted the lid on how an unlikely victory can be achieved tomorrow.

Rae is one of the survivors of Wolves’ 1-0 shock success in United’s last visit in January 2004 that shook the football world and provided match-winner Kenny Miller with his stand-out Molineux moment.

The hugely likeable 40-year-old, now Paul Ince’s first team coach at MK Dons, believes Wolves must get at Sir Alex Ferguson’s Treble chasers to give themselves something to cling to.

Rae said: “It was unbelievable, because I don’t think anyone thought we’d turn over United and it was a really good game as well as I can remember. We put in a very spirited performance and Kenny scored the winner which no one could have predicted.

“You need to play at your best and you need the rub of the green in the game. You need something to build on such as a goal and that gives you that extra half a yard. That’s so important because against the top teams, when you lose the ball, it’s so hard to get it back.

“Technically, they’re far better than you man for man, so it’s just like any level of football, when you come against players better than you, first and foremost you have to unsettle them and break their rhythm to give you hope.

“You have to keep chipping away at them because you get tired which is why you need something to cling to.”

For United, the Wolves game comes in between last Sunday’s Carling Cup final win at Wembley and their Champions League return against AC Milan and the Molineux masses will be hoping it is a case of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’ for United.

But Rae has an interesting insight to that theory.

He said: “I wouldn’t imagine this is a problem for United because they’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. I remember when Denis Irwin came here, he said the United players rarely got a day off in the 10 months from pre-season right through to the summer.

“They were always in, whether it was receiving treatment or doing warm-downs or whatever. Their players have terrific hunger because they know the implications of defeat – they can’t afford to lose any ground.”

Rae’s popularity soared to new heights during Wolves’ inaugural Premier League season as his combative performances and eight goals made him top scorer.

But the former Molineux star reckons the current chance have a far better chance of survival than Dave Jones’s side.

He said: “Wolves are fighting away whereas most of that season we were always in the bottom three. Psychologically, that was always difficult for us because even if we won one, it didn’t improve our position much.

“But if Wolves win on Saturday, they could go up two or three places.”

Rae knows only too well how important the Molineux crowd can be and believes their influence could be key if they crank up the volume like they did against Chelsea 13 days ago, when the South Bank was at its most vocal.

He said: “The response from the crowd was magnificent, and it encourages you to keep charging about. It’s hard enough when you come up against the top players but if you get the crowd behind you, it gives you the impetus to keep going.

“Like any group of fans, Wolves just want to see their team win and it’s very difficult playing at that level.”

Rae, who played for and was managed by McCarthy at Millwall, believes Premier League survival could spark an exciting new era at Molineux.

He said: “The aim for Wolves is survival and if they can achieve that, Mick will have an opportunity to build on the formations he has built. More money will be generated from staying up and that will help him persuade better players to join the club.

“Without a doubt, they have as good a chance as anyone else. As long as they keep it tight at the back they’ll hopefully be alright because if you lose a goal ‘early doors’, they can go on and win the game comfortably.

“But Wolves have certainly got a stronger squad of players than when I was there and we were fighting to stay up.

“Once we lost two or three players, we were always fire-fighting and always struggling to get results.

“It’s about keeping your best players fit, but we didn’t have any continuity when I was in the Premier League at Wolves.

“When you get a settled team – the same two centre halves, the same two central midfielders and the same two strikers, or a full-back and a winger – players get an understanding of each other and the dynamics work.

“But Mick has a good, big squad so people can come in if there are injuries or he needs to rest players.

“That was shown when he picked that team at Old Trafford. He got stick about that decision but I thought it was a brilliant piece of management because I appreciated what he was trying to do in keeping his best players fresh.

“When they beat Burnley, it justified his decision. He took a lot of stick but he called it right.

“If he’d played his strongest team at Old Trafford, it would have made it very difficult to get a result against Burnley.”

That Burnley game was the last Wolves game Rae watched ‘live’ this season, and one player in particular caught his eye.

He said: “I was most impressed with Kevin Doyle. His movement was different class, but he also has superb touch and strength and a goal in him too – he’s a superb player.”