Boss Mick McCarthy is trying to clamp down on Wolves’ rampant promotion excitement after they moved within one win of the Premier League.

Wolves’ dramatic 3-2 victory at Derby was greeted by ecstatic celebrations from both players and travelling fans as they placed one foot in the biggest league in world football.

Those celebrations became even more intense as the results of chief promotion rivals Sheffield United, Birmingham City and Reading left Wolves just needing to beat QPR on Saturday to clinch only their second campaign in the much-vaunted Premier League.

But McCarthy, who was captured punching the air in delight at the final whistle at Pride Park, was quickly back in “grumpy” mode in an effort to banish premature celebrations ruining Saturday’s big day.

“It’s a dangerous game on Saturday because everyone will be wanting all that carnival stuff,” he added. “Everyone will be arriving and giving it large and wanting all that ‘yahoo’ atmosphere.

“But we want to win and so it’s business as usual as far as I’m concerned.

“The players have all done their warm-down as usual and will be in the ice baths and the manager is still a grumpy so-and-so.

“And I’ll still be the same until it’s mathematically certain if it happens.”

Nevertheless, Wolves will be heavily backed to win their seventh game in nine matches against a QPR team plunged into fresh crisis by the exit of their fourth manager in less than two years since Grand Prix mogul Flavio Briatore took over.

And in a further effort to down-size yesterday’s euphoric comeback which left Wolves six points clear of the field, McCarthy added: “I think we were very fortunate to win the game.

“But I’m also happy, pleased, relieved, delighted – all those adjectives. I was disappointed with the performance but obviously happy with the result which tends to mask everything else.

“That’s as poor as we’ve played for a very long time but do you know what? We had good front men who took their chances.

“It’s all about results at this stage of the season.”

By MARTIN SWAIN