Wolves quiet on Danny Murphy claim

Wolves have refused to respond to Danny Murphy's claims after being accused of being too 'pumped up' as the row over their 'dirty' tag rumbled on.

Fulham captain Murphy believes the approach of Wolves, Blackburn and Stoke is to 'stop other teams playing' and means their players are more likely to make controversial challenges.

Wolves are again under the spotlight after Karl Henry was sent off for a reckless lunge on Wigan's Jordi Gomez last Saturday.

But the club were keen not to seen to go 'tit-for-tat' and add fuel to the fire in the row over them being 'dirty.'

After speaking to the two other clubs identified by Murphy, they took the view with Blackburn and Stoke that it would be wrong to respond.

Murphy, speaking at the Leaders in Football conference, said: "You get managers sending their teams out to stop other sides playing, which is happening more and more - the Stokes, Blackburns, Wolves.

"If you have a manager in control of the team who doesn't allow these type of things, you're going to have a more disciplined team.

"They can say it's effective and they've got to win games but the fact is their players are so pumped up, there's inevitably going to be problems.

"Under Roy Hodgson at Fulham, we were always top of the Fair Play award because he wouldn't accept stupid tackles."

Murphy's comments follow Fulham's unfortunate experiences against the three clubs.

Bobby Zamora broke his leg following an innocuous challenge with Henry, while striker Moussa Dembele has been sidelined following his collision with Stoke's Andy Wilkinson.

Fulham also conceded a goal against Blackburn after El Hadji Diouf's elbow-led obstruction of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

He said: "I don't believe players are going out to break another player's leg, but there has to be some logic and intelligence involved."

Ironically, Murphy defended Henry after the unfortunate injury to Zamora and was praised by boss Mick McCarthy.