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Mick McCarthy on alert for Spurs ambush
Thursday 16th September 2010, 2:19PM BST.
Wolverhampton Wanderers' Kevin Doyle scores the only goal of the game last season.
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today warned Tottenham will be ‘lying in wait’ to ambush his team on Saturday.
McCarthy is aware Wolves are unlikely to have the red carpet rolled out for them at White Hart Lane given his team’s undeserved ‘dirty’ tag and the fact they did the double over Harry Redknapp’s side last season.
And the Molineux chief believes those factors will ensure Wolves aren’t taken lightly.
“I think they will be waiting for us this year having beaten them twice and taken six points off them,” said the boss.
“We played well in both games and deserved to win.
“There’s another side to that as well. Teams don’t under-estimate us.
“So we know it’s going to be a good tough game at Spurs.
“I don’t mean tough as in physically tough – because we’re a capable football team. But they wouldn’t have treated us lightly last season, and, having been beaten by us down there, they didn’t treat us lightly when we played them at our place.
“They will treat us with all the respect they treat everyone else with.”
McCarthy accepts Wolves may have some work to do to rid the current perception of them as a ‘dirty’ team.
“We went to West Ham last season and played them off the park, having the ball nearly all the game,” he said.
“It just shows how quick people are to forget those sort of things.”
McCarthy revealed Wolves hadn’t scouted Spurs’ 2-2 Champions’ League draw away to Werder Bremen on Tuesday night in the belief their detailed reports of Tottenham’s two previous Premier League encounters would offer better clues about the opposition.
“We watched the Werder Bremen tie on TV but the reality is we had a report from their games against West Brom and Wigan the previous week,” he said.
“But I watched the Albion match with more interest than the European one.”
And the Wolves chief is hoping his side can exploit any flaws exposed by the extra game and travelling to Spurs’ preparation.
“It does make it harder because of the travelling, and if we can take advantage of that, then fantastic,” he added.
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Don’t think Spurs will make the same mistake they did after their last Champions League game. Wolves could be in for a very difficult afternoon on Saturday.
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Wolves mugged Spurs with what mick called his 9out of10 energy performance. So Spurs should make a good few changes and not one like they did against Wigan. Its time the FA had observers in dressing rooms to see how Teams come out with bags of high Tempo and looking totally refreshed and bottle it for England’s next World Cup.
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Looking for an entertaining game, I hope we can get a point or three but Spurs are a very good team.
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I think most Wolves fans would take a draw right now. Spurs are not in the Champions league for nothing and have an excellent squad.
At least we know one thing is that we will fight and scrap for everything and not play like Braga did last night (mate of mine dragged me to the game). Talk about corporate football at the Emirates – Great stadium and food, and seats and its fantasy football. No Atmosphere though!
We need to be strong and compete, and who knows we may just surprise a few people.
WE ARE WOLVES!
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Wolves and Spurs have been great opponents over the years. They took away our mantle of top team in the early sixties and they beat us in the first European Final to be played between two English sides, thanks to Martin Chivers. We held the advantage last season and although it was smash & grab at White Hart Lane, we thoroughly desrved our win at Molineux. It’ll be interesting to see how ‘arry approaches the game. He’ll be looking for revenge, no question, but he’s got a few injuries and they had a busy week in the Europe. I’ll settle for the draw now !
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No chance of repeating last year’s fluke.Spurs have improved their squad more than we have, easy home win I’m afraid…5 points from 5 games and off down the table we go
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Watching them game in my local pub. Me and my daughter will be the only Wolves fans in there, surrounded by over a hundred Spurs fans. So go on you Wolves.
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7 – Harrow Wolf – which pub in Harrow shows the game live?
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Spanish Arch Belmont. Is where i will be at 3pm.
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