Sorry Wolves pushed closer to brink

THE hands of relegation are clawing away at Mick McCarthy’s throat and after admitting the festive period could decide Wolves’s fate, he appears well on course for a one-way ticket to the wilderness of the Championship.

Teams that are bottom at Christmas frequently fail in their survival missions and the tension is building at Molineux after this insipid performance, one McCarthy simply cannot have seen coming.

Hugo Rodallega and Tom Cleverley helped earn Roberto Martinez only his second away win of the season and inch Wigan away from the bitter chill of the relegation trapdoor.