Wolves captain Karl Henry has paid tribute to Mick McCarthy ahead of his former boss’s return to Molineux with Town on Saturday. McCarthy was with the Midlanders from July 2006 until he was sacked in February, leading them into the Premier League as champions in 2008/09 and keeping them there in the following two seasons.
Henry told the Birmingham Mail: "Mick contributed a lot to the club in the six years that he was here. I think that he’s easily the most successful manager Wolves have had at the club in recent years.
"In Wolves’ modern era he deserves a lot of respect for what he did. He brought me to the club and signed some good players and did a great job and I don’t think that anyone can deny that.”
The 30-year-old midfielder is expecting a difficult afternoon: "He’s certainly turned things around at Ipswich and we know that it’s going to be a tough game for us.
"We know what they will be about and I’m sure that Mick will think he knows what we will be about. So yes, it will be tough, but after [Wednesday’s 3-0 home defeat to] Peterborough we need to bounce back, and quickly.
"We know how well Mick did here but for us at the moment it’s not about wanting to beat Mick McCarthy’s team any more than beating anyone else.
"Right now we are embarrassed about where we are in the league [14th] and we need to do something about it. We had started to make a little bit of progress and then we go and perform like that against Peterborough. We need to look at ourselves and buck our ideas up.”