Wolves are not far off being a decent side and are in with a good shout of avoiding relegation from the Premier League (10/11 to be relegated on Betfred outright coupon), according to their manager.

Mick McCarthy currently sees his side sitting in the Premier League relegation places on ten points and faces a second-city derby against Birmingham on Sunday, with their rivals five points ahead in 13th place (Wolves 6/4, Birmingham 15/8 for victory on Premier League coupon).

The former Sunderland manager admits that his side are playing catch-up on a lot of their rivals and just need a couple of scrappy wins to get back on track

Wolves would then be thought of as a decent side, as 15 points a third into the season and 30 in the other two-thirds would see them survive, he added.

McCarthy said: “We are minus five points on that first target and we have got to pick those five points up now from somewhere else, which is difficult to do. But it can be done.

“The players give me everything. They will never let me down intentionally and that is a nice quality for a team to have and for a manager to believe in.”

Kevin Doyle (11/2 to be first goal scorer on match coupon) is expected to return to the Wolves side for the Birmingham game (Birmingham 9/4 for relegation on outright coupon), after sitting out the defeat to Chelsea following his exploits with Ireland in their World Cup play-off defeat to France (16/1 to win the World Cup on outright coupon).

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