Andy Gray has praised Mick McCarthy for his brave decision which sparked Wolves’ Premier League survival.

The former Wolves and Villa striker and Sky TV pundit believes McCarthy’s bold move to switch to 4-1-4-1 in January was the catalyst to save the club from relegation.

After changing to one striker up front, Wolves won three and drew seven out of 15 games to secure safety, before losing at Portsmouth and drawing against Sunderland once safety had been assured.

But Gray, who was Britain’s most costliest footballer when he moved to Wolves from Villa for £1.469m in 1979, believes McCarthy’s decision was pivotal.

“With 10 games to go, I feared for Wolves and I thought they might just slip through the trap door, but full marks to them and full marks to Mick,” said Gray.

“He started the season playing a system that wasn’t getting them anywhere and he was big enough to admit that was wrong and he changed it.

“He went to five in midfield with just Kevin Doyle up front and it worked well for them.

“I think it’s difficult for a manager to say half way through a season, “Listen lads, this isn’t working so I’m going to change it.”

“But Mick was big enough to do that and it kept them in the league.”

Gray feels Wolves have made progress by staying up but isn’t sure how far they can go in the Premier League.

“That’s a difficult one. I think progress has been made already by the fact that they’ve stayed in the league,” he said.

Establishing themselves in the top flight has come nearly three decades too late for Wolves and Gray, who was part of the team that was relegated and promoted as the early 1980s decline set in at Molineux.

Gray traces the long slump back to the financial ruin that engulfed the club following the decision to build the £2.5m Molineux Stand, as well as the failure to replace quality players.

“The club went bankrupt and it was very difficult to do anything,” recalled Gray.

“There was no money, they had built a white elephant of a stand and a lot of the great players we had – particularly Willie Carr, John Richards and Emlyn Hughes – were at the back end of their careers and it was very difficult to replace them because they weren’t only great players but great professionals as well.

“When the club went into administration, assets had to be sold and it was tough.”

Gray is best remembered from his rollercoaster four years at Wolves for scoring the winner in the 1980 League Cup final against all-conquering Nottingham Forest – the last time Wolves won a major trophy, and the ex-Scotland international has fond recollections of the Wembley final.

“I remember we were massive underdogs – Nottingham Forest were going for their third League Cup in a row and they were one of the best teams in Europe, let alone England,” he said.

“We had Emlyn Hughes on a dodgy knee, playing in one of his last seasons trying to win the only trophy he never won with Liverpool, which was an extraordinary story.

“We also had John Richards who had a bad knee and was coming to the end of his career. Kenny Hibbitt was the same.

“So we were very much underdogs and we got battered for much of the game – but we hung on in there.

“We had a great team spirit, a great togetherness, and we got lucky.

“Those are the kind of things that determine cup finals.

“Portsmouth almost did what we did (in last Saturday’s FA Cup final).

“We didn’t quite get battered in the way Chelsea battered Pompey, but we hung on.

“We got one chance, I took it and we hung on in there.”