Wolves boss Mick McCarthy was left frustrated by his side’s defending as they allowed troubled Portsmouth to claim their first points of the season.

Portsmouth gained a priceless 1-0 win at Molineux thanks to a goal from on-loan Benfica midfielder Hassan Yebda.

Wolves had strong claims for a penalty denied when Marc Wilson appeared to handle a cross from Michael Kightly.

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But boss Mick McCarthy was more concerned about his side’s defending when Yebda snatched the only goal of the game after 20 minutes.

He said: “I am getting a bit tired about saying, ‘we should have had a penalty’ because it sounds like I am bemoaning my luck.

“But if we defend a corner properly or a second ball that comes in, then we might be talking about that (the penalty claim) to win the game rather than to save it.

“That is more my grief. But if it is a penalty, he should have given it. There is no point in me speculating on it anymore.

“We played well in the second half and had a number of opportunities we should have done better with. They have done the basics and stopped us scoring.”

McCarthy was not surprised Pompey finally broke their Premier League duck for the campaign.

He said: “Portsmouth are a Premier League side with still good players in the side.

“Of course they would win a game. It was just sad it has been here.”

Wolves defender Christophe Berra insists there was no complacency from the home side when facing their bottom-placed opponents.

He said: “I wasn’t surprised how good they were. They are not in the Premier League for nothing. They’ve got quality players. We didn’t expect anything less from them.

“It’s not like we came here thinking ‘this is going to be an easy game.’ That is so far from the truth. It just never happened for us. We’ve only played badly once this season.

“There are going to be good and hard times ahead. We never came up from the Championship thinking it was going to be easy. We knew when we came up we would be one of the favourites to go down.

“It is going to be right to the death. It’s only eight games. We could go on a run and win three or four in a row. Football is a crazy game.”

Portsmouth manager Paul Hart has praised the spirit and resilience of his players during the off-the-field tribulations at Fratton Park in recent months.

Some of his squad did not receive their wages last week.

That situation is due to be rectified today with Hart also revealing that “new investment” will be forthcoming in the next few days.

But Hart insists his players have “stayed strong” amongst all the uncertainty about Portsmouth’s future despite a run of seven successive league defeats before the win at Molineux.

He said: “We’ve been through the mill in many ways – the club, the players, the fans, everyone working with us, but we have stuck together.

“They are a great bunch of lads, they have shown great spirit and they have never wavered.

“We’d won two games in the Carling Cup and that had given us a lift. We’ve drawn on that but we knew we needed a win in the Premier League.

“The win was absolutely brilliant and I am pleased for everyone connected with the club. We’ve had a tough time but I don’t think it should finish with these three points. We need to build on that.

“Interestingly Tottenham, after eight games of last season, had two points and they nearly finished in Europe. I am not saying we are going to finish in Europe!”

By John Curtis