Wolves boss Mick McCarthy admitted his side would “never forgive themselves” if they do not go on to claim promotion following the 2-1 defeat at Coventry.

The reverse sees the Black Country side’s lead over Reading at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship cut to four points and McCarthy’s woe was compounded by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s penalty miss in injury time. 

McCarthy said: “The opportunity to win something is in reach for them but they will never forgive themselves if we let it out of our grasp that’s for sure.” 

Wolves leaked another two poor goals when Michael Doyle scored after Clinton Morrison turned Richard Stearman far too easily before Leon McKenzie got the wrong side of Stephen Ward to grab the winner.

Ebanks-Blake saw an injury-time penalty saved by Keiron Westwood, but boss McCarthy said his side can’t expect to get anything from defending so badly.

“It might have been a case of getting out of jail late on with the penalty,” he said.

“But we certainly wouldn’t have deserved to get out of jail for the way we’re defending.

“We worked damned hard to get back into the game but straightaway gave them three chances from which it was third time lucky.

“We just didn’t learn and lost possession and it then ended up in our net.”

McCarthy insists the squad has been working constantly on their defending.

“We always work defensively, it’s not a case of something goes wrong and we suddenly start working on it – we do it all the time,” he said.

McCarthy took little consolation in chief rivals Reading and Birmingham both drawing to leave them four points clear.

“We’ve got out of jail because the others drew, but we should’ve had a point as well and shouldn’t even have had to rely on that penalty,” he added.

“We’re all as bad as each other maybe!”