Wolves urged to carry on keeping it clean

Wolves have been challenged to reel off the clean sheets after topping the Championship for shut-outs this season.

moreFriday's 2-0 win against Derby was the 17th time Kenny Jackett's side have kept the opposition out in the league in 39 games this term.

That is level with third-placed Middlesbrough, who boast the division's best defensive record with just 30 goals against.

Eleven of those clean sheets have been at Molineux, and Boro (11), Ipswich (14) and Sheffield Wednesday (16) the only teams who have leaked fewer goals in front of their own fans than Wolves' and Leeds' tally of 17 in 2014-15.

Wolves have kept the opposition out in four of the last five games at Molineux - each one of those won - with the two in the draw against Watford the only time Kuszczak's net has been breached.

Head coach Kenny Jackett led Wolves to a club record 25 league clean sheets last season as they stormed to the League One title.

And although the record in 2014-15 isn't threatening the record books, it stands comparison with their rivals at this level this term.

But Jackett admits it's going to take more diligent work from keepers Tomasz Kuszczak and Carl Ikeme, plus Danny Batth, Richard Stearman and Co over the next seven games to keep Wolves in the hunt.

"It's a great record. The clean sheets we've had in this period have been hard worked for and we've earned them," said the boss.

"As a club it's a really good thing and fantastic but we'll need more to be successful as well.

"That's a big thing and I'm very pleased with that stat."

The nightmare November of 16 goals against in five straight defeats led to a rethink with the onus on cutting out sloppy goals as Wolves became too easy to score against.

Jackett admits the turnaround in the goals against column had been very much a collective effort.

"To say it's just the goalkeeper or just the centre-backs or the defence isn't quite right," he said.

"It's a team effort and a commitment to keep the ball out of your box at times.

"You need that type of heart, determination and organisation to make sure you keep clean sheets.

"What we talk about is reducing the poor and simple goals against.

"We felt we gave poor goals away during the poor period in November.

"If you're the opposition, you will say 'they're good goals' but we have to look at it from our point of view and we felt we gave too many soft goals away.

"We needed to be harder to beat and eradicate the mistakes to give ourselves a chance.

"When you're just giving goals away, it kills the morale, it kills the stadium and it kills the confidence.

"So we set out through December to make sure we became harder to beat and we've done that over a period now which we're very pleased with."