McCarthy: Murray was terrific

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy described the performance of resilient goalkeeper Matt Murray as “terrific” after opening the season with a 1-1 draw at Plymouth.

Murray, whose career has been blighted by injury, kept Wolves in the match after Barry Hayles had scooped the ball in for a 36th-minute opener to mark his first competitive match since teaming up with Ian Holloway for £100,000 (€143,000) from Millwall last month.

Murray kept his side in the match after that until Wolves equalised when Mat Doumbe deflected Kevin O’Connor’s shot into the net.

McCarthy admitted Murray had even been forced to overcome an injury last week just to play in the Coca-Cola Championship opener: “Matt limped off last week, we know he’s a good goalkeeper.

“He’s been and had a scan and had really positive news: no damage to the foot. He came back and produced a terrific performance. That’s lovely when that happens.

“You would expect some gloom, doom and apathy about the club after losing 12 players but I think some of it has been lifted by my appointment, hopefully, and a bit more by this performance.

“I’ve only been 12 days in the job and I was pleased with how we battled and there were some good performances out there. Not many sides will come away from Plymouth with a point.”

Emotional Holloway admitted to feeling “very proud” after his first game since returning to the westcountry to take over as Pilgrims boss.

He said: “I was very proud of the lads. I haven’t been here long and I was very pleased.

“It was a very emotional day for me, because of the reception I got. The crowd here are absolutely marvellous, unfortunately we didn’t win although I felt we had done enough to deserve it.

“If you look at the stats we had more chances than they did but we didn’t turn them into goals. On another day we might. All you have to do is keep making chances and that’s what pleased me the most really.”

After forcing the opening goal Hayles looked set to double his tally on the very next attack but Murray made the first of a handful of magnificent stops.

The next was to deny Lilian Nalis, whose header looked destined for goal until Murray’s point-blank stop.

The significance of those saves became apparent when O’Connor’s 47th minute shot looped up off Argyle central defender Doumbe and in to make it 1-1, with home keeper Luke McCormick caught flat-footed by the deflection.

Even then Argyle responded well with Nalis going close from a corner, and getting injured in the process, while Murray made a vital save to turn David Norris’ 85th minute reverse shot on the post and away to safety.