McCarthy: Survival fight tougher this time

Mick McCarthy believes Wolves face a tougher battle than last season to survive in the Barclays Premier League.

McCarthy feels the quality of the sides promoted from the Coca-Cola Championship – Newcastle, West Brom and Blackpool – will make it harder to survive.

Wolves made a promising start to the campaign but have lost their last four league games to slide into the bottom three.

McCarthy said: “We are a better team than we were but I think the league is better.

“There’s nobody going to go bust, there’s no Portsmouth which helped everybody.

“There’s nobody going to lose points, I don’t think.

“Blackpool have had a real flying start, to go to Liverpool and win is no fluke on the back of their other results.

“West Brom have started great. They beat Arsenal. That can’t be any fluke either so they are not a bad side.

“Newcastle are a Premier League side. They’ve built and kept their players.”

McCarthy added: “We’ve got a good solid team because we stayed in the Premier League and I still think it will come good.

“It is about maintaining the belief, that’s me and the players and the fans.”