Andy Thompson: Wolves' rivals are getting desperate
Wolves legend Andy Thompson has warned the current crop of stars that teams are becoming more and more desperate to knock them off their perch.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are 12 points clear of Villa at the top of the Championship after 31 games.
Next up is a trip to seventh-placed Preston on Saturday.
And ahead of the clash, Thompson – who made more than 370 appearances for the club in an 11-year spell – said: “With the way we’ve recruited and the plaudits we’ve been getting, teams are desperate to shoot you down.
"Preston will really raise their game on Saturday.
“They will do their best to knock Wolves off their stride – to delay their promotion, or even prevent it from happening.”
At their current rate, Wolves are on the way to comfortably surpass the 100-point mark.
Thompson expects Nuno’s men to do so, but – with trips to the likes of Fulham and Villa coming up soon – insists getting those points will be far from straightforward.
“With the way we’ve played throughout the season, you’d expect to get there or thereabouts – that 100-point mark,” he said.
“There are some difficult games coming up, though – Preston away, Norwich at home, Fulham away.
“Then we’ve got to go Leeds and Villa in March.
“There are some very difficult games coming up.
“Promotion is not a given, nothing is a given in this league. I always remember the season we were 11 points clear of Albion – but we didn’t go up, and they did.
“There’s still 15 games to go and that’s a good chunk of games. Nuno will not let the team get carried away.
“It’s hard when the team is playing so well but we’re all trying not to get too carried away.
“They’ve just got to maintain what they’ve been doing.”
Nuno and several players have spoke of the importance of the winter break in Marbella.
Wolves have won all three league games since returning from a week-long trip there last month.
They had gone four games without a win across all competitions before their stay in the sun.
Thompson feels the training camp benefited one player in particular, and added: “I thought Diogo Jota was looking a bit heavy-legged before going out to Marbella.
"The training camp seems to have done the trick for him.”
