Wolves boss Mick McCarthy will ignore the Freddy Eastwood side show as he sends his team out on another make-or-break mission.Wolves’ derby with Coventry at the The Ricoh Arena throws McCarthy’s play-off chasers into direct conflict with a home side needing one more victory to clinch Championship survival.
But the clash, which is expected to draw Coventry’s biggest league gate of the season of around 27,000, is given an extra edge by the Freddy Eastwood transfer saga which erupted in March.
The collapse of Coventry’s plans to sign the 24-year-old Welsh international left plenty of ill feeling. But McCarthy side-stepped the controversy in the build up to the game today.
“I’m not going to rake it up - this game doesn’t need any other side show,” he said. “I found some of the stuff that was written and said at the time absolutely astounding.
“But this game is important enough as it is and the issue will have zero impact on me.
“It gives us the chance to stay in the Premier League shake up, and for them there is the chance to get safe.
“If somebody wants to take their eye off the ball and create something that’s not necessary then that’s their problem.”
Eastwood will resume his bench duties tomorrow in a Wolves side likely to be unchanged unless McCarthy decides another start so early in Michael Kightly’s comeback could put the wide man at further risk of injury.
“He is a big, big player for us but he has had 45 minutes and then 60 after a long time out,” said McCarthy.
While a point could prove enough for Coventry’s safety, Wolves find themselves in the thick of numerous permutations as the season winds down .
More than 4,000 travelling fans will have half an eye on Crystal Palace’s fortunes at Hull knowing defeat for Neil Warnock’s side and victory for Wolves would send McCarthy’s men into the last weekend of the season as favourites for a play-off place.
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