Manager Mick McCarthy hopes he’ll receive a warm reception when he returns to his old club Wolves for the first time since his sacking this afternoon. McCarthy was at Molineux for almost six years before being relieved of his duties in February after the Midlands club dropped into the relegation zone after a run of one win in 13 matches.
McCarthy believes he was a success during his time in the Black Country: "I did a good job at Molineux. I loved it, I had a great time there. I had six years there and it was fabulous, I had a blinding time.
"It’s a great club, great people, I’ve no axe to grind with anybody there. I’m going back with my head held high, without any doubt. Hopefully I’ll get a good response.
"I think I’m entitled to one for what I did at Wolves, but that doesn’t always happen, does it? So, if I get it, fine, if not, I’m not bothered, genuinely not bothered.
"I’ve a really warm feeling towards the club and the fans but you know when football managers leave, it really is ‘The king is dead, long live the king’ and they don’t give you too much grace or favour in return.”
He says there is no bitterness on his part regarding the manner in which his time there ended: "Not at all. People make their decisions. As I do if I’m picking a team or doing whatever I’m doing, they have to do with theirs. Whether they have any [regrets] about making the decision, I don’t know.”
He believes that he would have kept them in the Premier League had he stayed for the remaining weeks of the season, his Blues assistant Terry Connor briefly taking over from him before StÃ¥le Solbakken’s appointment in the summer.
"It’s easy for me to say yes, isn’t it?” he said. "The reality is that I don’t know. I’d done it for two seasons prior to that with the players and we’d been in worse positions than that and stayed up.
"I do think I would have kept the club up, but it wasn’t to be and I’m here now and I’m loving doing what I’m doing. I’ve got no desire to do anything else.”
McCarthy admits that a win today would inevitably mean a little more to him than usual: "I’d like to go back there, take my team back there, play well, put on a good show and win, of course.
"There’s always going to be a little bit of you thinking ‘Show everybody what they’re missing’, but Wolves have got a good team. They had a bad result on Boxing Day but this league throws up some crazy results. Peterborough have just had three fabulous results.”
He says Wolves have a squad capable of far better than their current standing of 14th in the Championship: "I think they’ve got a great team and I’m surprised to see them where they are, to be honest.
"I haven’t watched them that much. I haven’t taken that much notice of them. I watched them against Peterborough, I watched the game just now and Peterborough played very well.
"I’ve genuinely no interest in what’s going on. I’ve seen his team, he’s got six or seven of the players that have won the Championship — Carl Ikeme, Kevin Foley, Stephen Ward, Roger Johnson with Birmingham, Christophe Berra with me, Karl Henry, Kevin Doyle, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, it’s a really good Championship team.
"I think Tongo Doumbia and Bakary Sako are two good players that he’s signed, and he’s got Jermaine Pennant on loan.
"That is a really good Championship team and if they play as well as they can, if we allow them to play or they have their day, we’ll have a really tough day there because they’ve got really good players.”
McCarthy says he’ll catch up with a few old friends who work at Molineux but once the game starts there’ll be no doubt where his allegiance lies: "All those people are looking forward to seeing me, I know that because I’ve been told that, and I’m looking forward to seeing them.
"All the clubs I’ve ever been at I’ve got really lovely memories of every one I’ve been at and a real affinity with them, but when I go back with another club, it’s all out the window I’m afraid.
"I’ve been back to Barnsley, I’ve been back to Manchester City and I’ve been back to Parkhead and back to Millwall. I don’t get too emotional, you can’t imagine it, can you?”