Mick McCarthy defended his decision to field a virtual reserve team against Manchester United last night, when Wolves lost 3-0 and dropped back into the bottom three, extinguishing most of the feelgood factor Saturday's win at Tottenham had engendered.
After Wolves had raised expectations by winning at Spurs their manager said it was unrealistic to expect the same players to cope with two tough away games in four days and left out the 10 outfield players who started at White Hart Lane.
"I only decided to change the team after Saturday's result," McCarthy said. "All the player effort-ratings that our fitness coach works out were 9.5s or 10. We need to play at that level to get results against top teams and we can't do it on a Saturday and then also on a Tuesday."
The Wolves manager then quoted from an article in which Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, claimed that the risk of injury rises from 10% after one game to 30 or 40% if another game follows within three or four days. "What you saw tonight was the best team we had available," added McCarthy. "I've got 21 players to choose from, that was my first team."
Previously, teams would automatically incur penalties for fielding weakened teams but in the era of Champions League squads the Premier League has allowed the rule to fall into disuse and a spokesman later unofficially confirmed McCarthy was within his rights to select the side he did. The rule actually requests that clubs play their strongest team anyway, so it is clearly open to interpretation.
McCarthy's move, which effectively handed United victory, did not go down well with those Wolves supporters who travelled to Old Trafford and is also unlikely to be popular among United's title rivals.
"I don't remember United being disappointed when I played 3‑5‑2 at Chelsea, or when we tried to attack Arsenal," said McCarthy. "We got slapped there and there was no sympathy for me afterwards in the managers' room.
"I'm not bothered about angry reactions anywhere else, my priority is my own team and any decisions I make this season will be based on whether or not we can stay in the Premier League.
"I accept some of the fans may have been unhappy with the team I put out, but I would hope they will understand the situation. I played my strongest team and we competed with United."
The United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, said: "Wolves made it very difficult for us. I wasn't over-surprised at the changes they made; they've got a massive game against Burnley coming up [on Sunday]."
Ferguson has a few injury problems of his own at the moment, with Wes Brown missing the game with a hamstring and Nemanja Vidic having to leave the field with a calf strain.
"We're lacking a bit of continuity with all the changes we are having to make," Ferguson added. "Wolves did well to stop us playing."