Express & Star

Promotion 'ours to lose' says Wolves boss Kenny Jackett

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Kenny Jackett today insisted promotion is within Wolves' grasp after claiming "It's ours to lose".

Saturday's 1-0 win at Milton Keynes was the League One leaders' 12th in their last 14 outings and put them 10 points clear of third-placed Leyton Orient with seven matches left, starting with their game in hand, tomorrow's trip to basement side Stevenage.

With their superior goal difference, Wolves need just 10 points to secure automatic promotion after Orient lost 1-0 at home to Bradford and second-placed Brentford drew 0-0 at Oldham.

And Jackett believes a top-two place is in sight now.

"It's certainly ours to lose if you look at the table," said the head coach.

"We're in a great position but we've got to not worry too much about the overall situation and just concentrate on Stevenage because Leyton Orient don't play.

"It's a great run by the players to win 12 out of 14 games.

"But Preston and Rotherham both won which shows that they'll keep going."

Meanwhile Jackett blasted the state of the MK Dons pitch after both teams struggled to play passing football on it and made for a poor game.

"I think the pitch played a big part in the game and probably spoiled it - it was like playing football on a rugby pitch," said the boss.

"It negated two good footballing teams and took the quality away.

"It was difficult to play on and the game looked like that.

"But we defended very well, picked up a great clean sheet and found a way to win.

"I think we were on top in the second half but didn't produce the quality passing moves we're used to."

But Jackett stressed the only important thing from Saturday was the outcome after admitting his players were frustrated with each other at not being able to put on a show for the 8,943 travelling fans.

"At this stage with where we are and what the stakes are, results are everything," he said.

"We had to make sure we kept defending and didn't get frustrated going forward.

"And that's what I said at half time – I didn't want us to feel too much pressure with the expectancy on the game.

"I felt the players were slightly getting onto each other and they didn't need to do that.

"They didn't need to lose their morale and just keep going and make sure we didn't undo ourselves and make that wanting to do well rebound on us.

"When the chance did come we had to make sure we took it."