Boss Mick McCarthy says the “lovely” reception he received from his old fans when he went back to Wolves for the first time with Town meant a lot, but expects the Molineux faithful to be rather more hostile during this afternoon’s crucial encounter between the two play-off pushing sides.
Despite goals from Aaron Cresswell and DJ Campbell seeing his new club to a 2-0 victory just after Christmas 2012, both McCarthy and his assistant Terry Connor, who had a similar role at Molineux as well as a brief spell as boss himself following McCarthy’s exit, were given warm ovations by the home crowd both before and after the match.
The Town boss says that meant a lot to him: "It did, it was lovely, it was fantastic. I think that was just appreciation for the job I’d done while I was there.”
McCarthy’s largely successful spell at Molineux - he saw them into the Premier League when they won the 2008/09 Championship title - ended after a February 2012 5-1 home defeat to local rivals West Brom when he was forced to leave via a back exit.
While he has said that that was "a really horrible day”, overall his time there was a happy one.
"The way I left after the West Brom game was only one day,” he added. "I had five and a half, nearly six years of happiness, joy and real entertainment at the place, it was lovely.
"I’ve got nothing but fond memories from Wolverhampton and the day I went back, I got a lovely reception.”
Although the West Brom game marked an end to his time as the manager at Molineux, he remains friends with plenty of people there, including the men in charge.
"It was closed in terms of my job, that’s all,” he said. "But in terms of my friendships and my relationships with all the people there, and that includes [owner] Steve Morgan, who I’ve spoken to since and get on very well with, and certainly Jez Moxey, the chief executive, who remains a very close friend of mine, they’ll always be pals of mine.”
Despite the warm welcome on his previous visit, he isn’t expecting quite the same today and certainly not once the match, which is hugely important to both clubs’ play-off aspirations, gets under way.
"Probably not,” he said. "I don’t expect warm receptions from the crowd when they’re watching. They want their team to win and they want to be as hostile as possibly can to the opposition.
"And if that’s for 90 minutes that’s fully understandable. And afterwards, Wolves will still be a fond memory for me and I still think that they’ll think of me fondly as well, win, lose or draw. But not during the game.”
Reflecting on the Blues potentially winning promotion, McCarthy admits he misses the increased spotlight which comes with being in the top flight.
"I miss not being in the Premier League, I’d love to be back in the Premier League and that’s what we’re about here - trying to get back,” he said.
"And, of course, this is a busy day, we’ve got nine or 10 media, normally it’s the same three or four same old faces, and I miss those days, the big press conferences when there’s a big match coming up.
"I miss the interest and being seen on Sky week in, week out, being on it, talking about it, being involved in the big games.
"They don’t even show you very often when you’re in the Championship, you don’t even get a report in some of the papers.
"The difference is massive and I would love it if some of my players could enjoy that profile because they deserve it. And whoever gets there this year is going to have earned it and will deserve it.”