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Wolves players bid to take heat off Kevin McDonald

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Wolves' other matchwinners were today urged to take the heat off Kevin McDonald in tomorrow's Bramall Lane pressure cooker as they targeted a return to winning ways against League One's form team.

Playmaker McDonald has become a marked man with teams identifying the tall Scottish midfielder as the player they have to stop to prevent Wolves rolling over them.

Josh Simpson did it for Crawley on Tuesday night as Wolves' 10-match unbeaten run ended with a 2-1 defeat.

McDonald heads to his former club Sheffield United tomorrow lunchtime for the first time since leaving in August to face a team which has reeled off an 11-match unbeaten run of 10 wins and eight consecutive clean sheets.

Head coach Kenny Jackett said: "If they target one person or two who are then quieter because they're maybe tightly marked, that should make space for others who then have to come into it.

"If McDonald and Michael Jacobs, for example, are our best players then James Henry scored the other night and Bakary Sako and Nouha Dicko have been lauded as being very good as well. There's enough players to go around. We have attacking full-backs and may even get a centre-back heading one in from a corner one day."

Despite Wolves under-performing in the last two games, Jackett hinted at keeping faith in an unchanged line-up. "It's the same group that needs to go again and we're just looking to play better," he said.

Jackett has no problem with agreeing to the 1.25pm kick-off in recognition of United's 125th anniversary.

"We didn't see it as a problem – we didn't see the harm in going along with things," he said.

Tiny attacking midfielder Stefan Scougall, who had a two-week trial with Wolves last summer, joined United in January for a fee rising to £400,000.

Jackett has no regrets, saying: "He trained with our younger group but we were perhaps looking for others and the decision was made not to take him.

"But he's done very well and looked a very good footballer.

"He was being considered for below the first-team around that time and he overlapped with perhaps some of the younger players in the group.

"He's made the most of his break and he'll just be concentrating on Sheffield United where he's taken a chance quite early."

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