Paul Lambert: Character can rescue Wolves from relegation nightmare
Paul Lambert insists he has enough characters in his squad to pull Wolves out of the relegation mire.
Four successive league defeats have seen Wolves sucked into a dogfight at the bottom of the Championship.
They are just two points ahead of the drop zone in 20th place, with 14 games to go.
Wolves have a game or two in hand on their immediate rivals, namely Brentford away (March 14) and Huddersfield at home (not yet scheduled).
But this weekend is potentially a pivotal one, with Blackburn Rovers (22nd) hosting Wigan Athletic (23rd) and Bristol City (21st) playing Burton Albion (19th).
At the same time Wolves will be at the Madejski facing Jaap Stam's high-flying Reading.
Lambert will be desperate to get some wins on the board sooner rather than later.
And he has no concerns over the personalities in his squad to get Wolves away from the bottom three.
"We've got enough characters, enough lads in there to see games through," he told the Express & Star. "They are good characters who've been here a long time who know the game.
"There are one or two young ones who it might be new to it, but the majority of the lads know what's involved."
"They're all big games (now). But I try and do that anyway, I didn't treat Liverpool any differently to Wigan, for me it's the same.
"That's why I never get too high or low on certain things.
"I try and keep everyone upbeat. I know what I want to try and achieve, long term, but you've got to walk before you can run. We've got to build this club the way I want to build it."
Defeats to Burton, Newcastle, Wigan and Birmingham in February have quelled any momentum Wolves accrued from victories in January over Villa and Barnsley in the league and Stoke and Liverpool in the FA Cup.
Lambert suggested he may ring the changes for Saturday's Reading clash.
"You learn a lot about them in defeat," he added. "It's the same group of lads that's been going for a few weeks now so maybe I'll look to change some things, some personnel. There are options for us.
"But we have to stop the slide."
Four of Wolves' next five matches are away from home. Given their record at Molineux, that may be a blessing. But Lambert knows the Molineux problem will need fixing.
"It shouldn't be like that at home," he said. "You should embrace it, the big crowd and the atmosphere it generates, you should love playing there.
"That's something we'll have to fix. If you've got any aspirations of getting up the league you have to sort your home form.
"We have to fix that."
The Royals have been in and around the play-off positions all season but are now closer to seventh than they are to second.
If seventh-placed Fulham win their game in hand, they'll be four points behind Stam's team.
And the Dutchman said: "It is going to be difficult to finish in the top six.
"But it makes it interesting for the players and the technical staff to find a solution, to work with the players and to win the games necessary to end up in the top six.
"It's going to be very, very hard.
"If it was that easy it's not nice as well, because sometimes you need to be in a difficult position to work with the players, to get everybody in a certain position so everyone is ready and giving it their best shot
.
"It's been working out very well but now the last couple of months, with the games we are facing, it's going to be very, very hard."
