Maierhofer tipped to shine for Wolves
Wolves manager Mick McCarthy believes Stefan Maierhofer could cause chaos in Premier League defences after bagging a goal on his debut at Blackburn.
The 6ft 7ins Austrian's performance was one of the few highlights of the team's worst performance of the season after his half-time introduction for Nenad Milijas.
McCarthy said: "I'm pleased with him. He scored, had another header blocked, had a shot from distance, and another half chance. With his physical size he caused problems.
"He caused a bit of chaos in their back-line at times. He had a couple of touches that I wouldn't be pleased with when he gave it away, but bearing in mind he trained for one hour before playing he did very well.
"There's a lot of strikers playing in the Premier League who haven't scored a goal yet. He notched one in 45 minutes and could have had a couple of others.
"It's vital to score goals as a striker. He'll be judged on what he does.
"He worked hard. He put himself about, he came back (to defend) and did all the things I'd have expected from our strikers – and he scored."
Sadly, McCarthy didn't have the positive line about his side's overall display.
The manager said: "I wasn't impressed with the defending. We started reasonably well – as well as Rovers did anyway.
"We had the best chance. Then we gave the ball away in the middle of the park.
"If you let El-Hadji Diouf run through one-on-one with the keeper it's likely to end in tears, and it did.
"That changed the whole course of the game. They had a bit of a spell then and we got away with it when Morten Gamst Pedersen hit the post before half-time.
"I thought we started the second half really well and had a chance, then didn't defend from a corner.
"If we give two goals away then the end result is going to be a defeat for us. As always we kept going. At 3-0 down we got one back.
"I think our goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey had a particularly good game – he had to make a few good saves.
"But after getting beat 3-1, I'm hardly looking for positives."
McCarthy insists Wolves aren't on a learning curve.
He added: "I don't think we're wet behind the ears and naive to what this is all about.
"The four games prior to this we'd played really well."
Relieved Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce had seen his side on one point with one goal before the game.
He said: "I don't care what anyone says – the pressure really comes when you're still looking for your first win. But we got what we deserved. The flair players like Diouf make a big difference when they use their skills in the right areas.
"It's the same with David Dunn his skill and talent is what we need on a weekly basis. It's great when you can win and entertain at the same time.
"We put in a really good performance with the right result and one we can hopefully take a lot of confidence from.
"The only disappointing thing was how we defended for their goal. But in the end, it didn't matter."
