Wolves boss defends inclusion of Jake Cassidy

Wolves manager Dean Saunders today defended his decision to select Jake Cassidy in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Bolton.

Cassidy replaced broken-leg victim Sylvan Ebanks-Blake at the Reebok Stadium in a surprise decision by the manager, who was expected to move Bjorn Sigurdarson from the right side of midfield.

Cassidy was taken off at half-time to be replaced by Tongo Doumbia after an ineffective performance alongside captain Kevin Doyle.

Saunders is a big fan of the 20-year-old and is convinced the Wales Under-21 international will play a huge part in the future of the club.

And he defended picking his fellow Welshman against Bolton, suggesting he wanted to keep the disruption to the team to a minimum.

"We'd won three games on the trot and kept the same shape and I didn't want to make too many disruptions so I just swopped Sylvan for Jake," said Saunders.

"He's a young player and he's having a go, but it just didn't come off for him on Saturday.

"He's got a good future in front of him. But in the second half I brought Tongo on."

Meanwhile, Saunders is insisting on taking some positives from Saturday's lacklustre performance.

"We've still won four out of six and had some good results but lost against a very good team in Bolton," he added.

"We won't be facing teams of their quality every week. Some of their football was excellent and they caused us a lot of problems."