Gray the wiser among the Michaels

Michael Mancienne might be the name on Wolves fans' lips but he could do much worse than to listen to another Michael at his new temporary club.

At 34, Michael Gray is 14 years older than the Chelsea defender and approaching the final straight of a proud career that has seen two promotions, England caps and Premier League experience galore.

Yet Gray notched the winner in Saturday's 3-2 win at Watford and celebrated like a kid in a sweet shop.

Perhaps it's not surprising. The left winger, who is just 12 games short of the magical 500 in the League, the majority of which have come in the top flight, appreciates every chance he gets.

By contrast Mancienne is at the other end of the scale. Coming from a world-class set-up of Terry, Lampard, Deco and Drogba, he is yet to make the breakthrough at Stamford Bridge, despite 12 years with the Champions League finalists.

His experience has been limited to 58 games on loan at QPR in the Championship over two spells.

So he may want to cock an ear in the direction of Gray, who is a shining example of how young professionals should conduct themselves.

He said: "I'm not a drinker and I don't go out partying. I look after myself these days and hopefully that will put me in good stead for the games ahead, if selected.

"The manager knows what he gets from me and I think everyone sees what I give when I get my chance to play. I'll never let anyone down.

"I'm not Matt Jarvis – I can't take people on like him and we're different types of player. But I was there to do a job on Saturday and if you look at Tommy Smith, who's probably Watford's most potent player, I think we kept him quiet and that's the kind of job I can do.

"If I can come up with a goal once in a while, then great."

Gray is also looking forward to some payback against Swansea tonight – after missing the recent 3-1 at Liberty Stadium through illness.

He said: "I was down to play at Swansea before I got ill and of course I get frustrated like anyone else. So it was great for me on Saturday and I knew I was starting a couple of days before the game.

"I've been keeping myself right and just biding my time and waiting for my chance. I know I've still got a lot to give and it's nice to get a taster. To top it off with a win and to get a goal was great."

At his age, Gray is confident boss Mick McCarthy's man-management skills can bring the best out of him, to ensure more occasions like he produced at Vicarage Road.

The left-sided man said: "I spoke to the manager in the summer and I'm fully aware of my position at the club. The manager's been great with me with the way I train and everything."

England under-21 defender Mancienne has been brought in to address the sudden haemorraging of goals against, which currently stands at 14 in five games.

Assessing Wolves' current Achilles heel, Gray acknowledges they haven't done enough to nullify the defensive issues yet.

He said: "We talked all week about getting back to clean sheets, but it didn't happen and we made it difficult for ourselves. We showed a lot of battling qualities but we've got to look at ourselves, because we shouldn't have to score three goals to win away from home.

"We could have lost, from where we're in the league and the way we've been playing, we shouldn't really find ourselves in situations like that.

"We've maybe got to look at that again and get back to basics. We worked on preparing for Watford and we knew they were a threat from setpieces and we saw that on Saturday. It was frustrating – great to win but annoying knowing we could have lost it.

"We start defending from our front two but the timing of conceding the goals hurt. To concede just after half-time after we'd gone in at the break full ofs adrenalin was annoying."

Gray believes for Wolves to fire it's vital for them to hit form at both ends of the pitch and has praised the contributions of striker Chris Iwelumo and keeper Carl Ikeme.

The utility man said: "Ever since Chris walked through the door here, he's been fantastic. We probably missed a target man last season – especially one of his calibre – and you could see his value on Saturday.

"He brings people into the game and he just has a fantastic presence.

"As for Carl, he's been outstanding since he's been in – you look at the goals we're conceding, but how many is he at fault for? Not too many."