Kightly promises to fight inevitable

Caretaker manager Terry Connor’s fifth successive defeat was blighted by an astonishing stand-up row between skipper Roger Johnson and goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey.

It goes from bad to worse for Wolves. Michael Kightly has displayed all the battling qualities sadly lacking at Molineux to recover from a career-threatening injury, and is clearly on a mission to make up for lost time in the Premier League.

But the clock is now ticking on their season and it is surely seconds out after this damaging defeat leaves Kightly facing a return to the Championship.

The Wolves winger suffered nearly two years of frustration with patellar tendinitis and feared he would never play in the top flight again. Kightly played a key role in Wolves’ revival under Mick McCarthy in the Championship, when he was plucked from non-league Grays in 2007, but has been deprived of his top flight dream after a succession of injuries.

But the £100,000 bargain buy returned in January this year to finally fulfil his burning ambition of an extended run in the land of cash and controversy. It looks doomed to be a short stay, however, and he has admitted that Wolves’ current plight is soul-destroying after this damaging defeat almost certainly terminated any lingering hopes of beating the drop.

He said: “My dream as a boy was to play in the Premier League and I want to make up for those games I’ve missed.

“I love this club to bits. I’ve been here since the start of the fightback under Mick McCarthy and have had a lot of great moments.

“It’s a club I love dearly and one I want to see do well. It hurts me like a fan to see what has happened and where we are.

“We aren’t stupid, we have seen the other results too. But the least we can do is show heart and determination for the rest of the season. The fans deserve that 100%.

“If we give it to them, I’m sure they will respect that. Mathematically, we are not down at the minute.

“If we fight to the death, that’s what we owe them. I personally will and the rest of the boys will too, I’m sure.”

Wales international keeper Hennessey raced up to confront Johnson after a defensive lapse and the pair had to be pulled apart by Kightly.

It was another sad sight for poor Connor, who has been given the impossible job by Steve Morgan after the panic sacking of McCarthy in February.

Wolves defender Stephen Ward attempted to play down the spat and insisted: “It was just two lads wanting to win and just pure passion. Those things blow over as quickly as they happen.”

The ball did end up in the Wolves net, though — three times, and the six-point gap from safety looks impossible to make up, with home games against Arsenal and Manchester City to come.

It looked as if Kightly would gift Connor a welcome win when he fired the hosts ahead eight minutes into the second period.

But Bolton responded after Johnson’s ill-advised lunge at former Wolves trainee Mark Davies, with Martin Petrov producing a fitting tribute to his pal Stiliyan at Villa with a coolly-taken penalty.

Ward felt referee Anthony Taylor got the decision wrong. “Obviously it was a massive blow to us and we absolutely pummelled them until that stage and we should have been well comfortable in the game.

“If the ref has got it wrong he has got to hold his hands up. A decision like that has basically turned the game on its head.”

The nerves then kicked in for Connor’s players and Marcos Alonso and substitute Kevin Davies both struck before Matt Jarvis’s late consolation.

Bolton, buoyed by the continued recovery of Fabrice Muamba, can now smell safety in their nostrils and boss Owen Coyle admitted his players are determined to stay up for their stricken midfielder.

He said: “I don’t think any player at any club wants to ever let anybody down in any respect. I think what we did summed up that team spirit and the sense of camaraderie and that will be important in the run-ins because there will be difficult moments for everybody.”