McCarthy remains wary after win

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McCarthy focused on final two games

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy refused to get carried away after a win over West Brom moved his side out of the Premier League drop zone with two games to go.

The Molineux club are now a point ahead of Wigan and Blackpool as well as four points in front of West Ham, with games against Sunderland and Blackburn to go.

“I am working on 22 May time the final day of the season and, as far as I know, it is only 8 May.” said McCarthy.

“I am proud of the way we played, but there is plenty of work to be done.”

He added: “It is pleasing and timely to be out of the bottom three.

“To take four points from two difficult local derbies is pretty good Birmingham and West Brom but I am still fully aware that there is work to be done.”

Wolves took advantage of some poor Baggies defending to go 3-0 up following two goals from Steven Fletcher and one from Adlene Guedioura.

A Peter Odemwingie penalty for West Brom and other chances for the visitors provided Wolves with some nerves before they completed the victory.

McCarthy dropped winger Matt Jarvis to the bench for the match and replaced him with Stephen Hunt in a move that paid off.

“My job is to challenge them all the players,” added the Wolves boss. “It would have been easy to do nothing and pick the same team.

“I could have left Jarvis in the team. The punters love him. It is part of the job to make tough decisions.

“He has played 30-odd times this season and he has not been at his most effective in the last few games.”

Fletcher’s double took his tally to five goals in the last seven games and as he has filled the void left by the Kevin Doyle, who was injured towards the end of March while playing for the Republic of Ireland.

“He Fletcher has scored some important goals and it is lovely to be proved right,” McCarthy said of the £7m striker signed from Burnley.

“I spent millions. He was my first choice. That is why I went and got him in the summer before I went on my holidays.

“I thought it was the best piece of business I could have done.

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Hodgson wants highest finish possible

“I think he has proved to be exactly what I thought he would be. He was delighted with his goals and I am thrilled with him.”

West Brom boss Roy Hodgson, meanwhile, blamed his side’s failure to defend set pieces for the defeat.

“If you concede two goals in the first half from corners, and concede a third from an unfortunate error, you’ve got a mountain to climb,” he said.

“I thought we tried to climb it and dominated the second half, showed great fighting spirit, but it was from a 0-3 position against a team who need the points.

“They were going to do their level best to defend against us.”