Albion boss Roy Hodgson today urged patience with Wolves manager Mick McCarthy as the pair prepared to lock horns in the Black Country derby.

Hodgson believes the under-pressure McCarthy is a victim of his own “magnificent” success at Molineux.

The men go head to head in Sunday’s Premier League derby with Wolves five points behind the Baggies and a point outside the bottom three despite last weekend’s win at QPR.

But Hodgson believes calls for McCarthy’s head from a section of Wolves fans are harsh after he and owner Steve Morgan led them to the Premier League and kept them up for the last two seasons.

“Mick’s done a magnificent job and so has the owner there,” said Hodgson. “Wolves is a well-run club and it’s a case of expectations when you do that well.

“He took them up and they stayed in the league, then people want to see you move on even further. But the expectations unfortunately impact upon people and the world of football is full of people who do good jobs taking the team up and then lose the job because they can’t do as well in the league above.

“There are also lots of other situations where managers stay a long time at clubs that never quite make it to the division above but are always relatively high up in the league below.

“Dave Jones was at Cardiff for five or six years but never brought them up – but was always close in play-offs. When you bring the team up, the barrier gets raised and, if you don’t bring the players in that match that, it can be difficult.

“But Wolves are a very competitive team and they’ll be battling right through until the end of the season – like we will.”

And Hodgson also paid tribute to Morgan for funding Wolves’ return to the big-time after taking over from Sir Jack Hayward.

“The owner has shown his intention since he came in at Wolves,” said Hodgson. “They have spent quite a lot of money by lower Premier League standards, not by Manchester City standards but by the standards of the West Broms, the Boltons and the Blackburns.

“They have invested quite wisely and spent some money.”