Villa ‘nervy’ to Wolves’ Kevin Doyle
Monday 21st March 2011, 4:57PM GMT.
Wolves striker Kevin Doyle believes Villa are ‘nervy’ and in a relegation fight after insisting their win was no fluke.
Saturday’s 1-0 victory at Villa left Mick McCarthy’s side just a point behind Gerard Houllier’s 14th-placed outfit, even though Wolves are third bottom by two goals behind West Ham.
And £6.5million striker Doyle reckons Villa have their own survival battle on their hands, with just seven points separating the bottom 11 teams.
He said: “It brings them nicely into our sort of zone. But we’ve been playing well, so I don’t think it was unexpected. They are not used to being in this position.
“We’ve been in this position for two years so we’re used to it. For the teams like Villa, they’ll be looking over their shoulders.
“It’s getting a bit nervy for them. For us, it’s just positive. We’re below them but we’re playing well.
“We’ve got a decent run-in which we need to take advantage of.”
Wolves have earned eight points from four games and 11 from six on their longest unbeaten run of the season.
It has left Doyle convinced of the team’s survival credentials.
He said: “This is just the first bit of a run we’ve had, but it’s good timing. We’ve felt we could climb out of it all along but we needed to get on a run.
“Overall we’re very happy with what we’ve got out of the last four games.”
Doyle also hailed the defence, who were superb in keeping their fifth clean sheet of the season at Villa, with Richard Stearman man of the match.
The striker said: “They have been tremendous. It’s not easy, especially when they’re piling on the pressure with 20 minutes to go and Stearman and Christophe Berra were winning headers one after the other.
“It relieves so much pressure when you see them winning those big headers, making big defensive clearances.”
Wolves now have two more free weekends – the next one is an international break and then they are out of action on April 16 because Stoke are in the FA Cup semi-final against Bolton.
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
