Mick McCarthy defended his handling of another Molineux let-down and urged fans to lay-off his struggling young players.

Saturday’s 3-0 defeat by Crystal Palace delivered yet more home-ground misery and fed the growing discontent of supporters worried that the team’s promotion challenge is crumbling.

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The defeat continued a disastrous eight game sequence in the Championship which has seen Wolves slump from third to 12th and fall four points off the play-off line.

And the increasing anger of the home fans came to a head in the 53rd minute when the substitution of new £1.5m striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake triggered a fresh chorus of “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing” directed at the manager.

“The fans haven’t agreed with one or two of my substitutions recently,” said McCarthy.

“That doesn’t bother me, I don’t have to play, but what bothers me is the reaction to the players going on or coming off.

Preparation

“In the case of Sylvan, he’s been up and down the motorway to Plymouth twice over the last few days and to be honest, I thought he looked a bit knackered. He’s just had a big move to Wolves and that’s not his correct preparation for the game.”

And McCarthy insisted the team’s reaction to the changes justified his decision adding: “The proof of the pudding is if we’d been really bad for the next 10-15 minutes I’d have said, ‘fair do’s, I’ve got it wrong’.

“But we weren’t. Then the guy who’s getting all the aggro, Jay Bothroyd, puts three or four great balls across from which we could have scored.

“It’s my decision, I’d much prefer a nicer reaction but it doesn’t worry me. I’m big enough and ugly enough to put up with any reaction but it doesn’t do the players any good and Jay’s out on the pitch not getting the support he requires.”

But the Wolves boss admits that only he and his players can win back the fans’ favour after four points from the last 24.

He added: “It’s up to us to get the fans back on side by performances and winning games.”