Sometimes you can look second best

“There were a few changes and I think the players who came in were excellent,” McCarthy said after his side's win. “I was delighted with the result and, make no mistake, this was a good win for us, and I celebrated as such at the end.

“I am a very competitive person, I don't like getting beat. In fact I celebrate like I did today if I beat the kids at crazy golf. It is my livelihood and it is the club's livelihood. We got the result, and in this league that's what matters.”

Discussing the game and his team's performance he added: “I thought we were dominant for great spells and yet it was a big ball up the middle that led to the goal. It was a good goal for Johnson, although I don't think he hit it as cleanly as he'd have liked. He did excellently all round today.

“Generally I thought all the lads did well. Burnley put us under pressure at times and they dealt with it well. Gary Breen was terrific, I have spent a few years working with him and he has just got better with age.”

He thought is side were unfortunate not to win by a bigger margin and pointing to the free kicks concluded by saying on the one that bounced back off the woodwork: “How Daniel Jones' free kick didn't go in I'll never know, it came off the inside of the post and you'd expect it to go in. But it wasn't to be.”

Clarets' boss Steve Cotterill had no complaints about the result and felt his side lacked determination as we fell to our first defeat of the season. “We probably deserved our defeat,” he said. “Wolves came here on the back of a good result and I though they were better than us. I think that with the chances we had we could still have got a result, but in the end they deserved their 1-0 win.

“Sometimes in football you have to work yourself into credit and good performances will get you good points. Sometimes you can look second best and this was one of those days. Sometimes it is mentality and we didn't show enough determination to get a result. For the team, determination was the word and for the staff it was frustration.”

He was happy though with the performance of one player and ended speaking about striker Kyle Lafferty, who started in the absence of Andy Gray. “Kyle was arguably, for both teams, the man of the match along with their centre backs and Seyi Olofinjana.

“I'm not being biased but I would give it to Kyle because I though he was head and shoulders better. It's just a shame we haven't managed to get him a good end to his week.”