Nenad Milijas today urged Wolves to start “winning ugly” to drag themselves clear of the drop zone.

Wolves got a welcome win against Sunderland last weekend after four defeats in a row and nine in 11.

Victory, which still left Wolves three points from safety, was at least a belated reward for numerous performances where Mick McCarthy’s side has played well but come away with nothing.

And, as Wolves prepare to go to Blackburn tomorrow, playmaker Milijas believes his team-mates are due to get three points when they grind out a result.

“I hope we will have a terrible performance, play very badly and win so we get lucky!” said Milijas.

“We deserve that because we’ve played so well in so many games without getting anything and the lads have worked so hard. We need to take at least a point from it but also work very hard to make sure we do the ugly side of football the tackling and battling to take points.

“I expect that to happen at least once because everyone the fans and press, say ‘you played great and lost, you were so unlucky’.

“I want someone to say you were lucky, you didn’t play well but you won.”

Milijas has targeted three wins from the next three games – Blackburn and the two derbies against Birmingham and Albion – to set them up nicely for the hectic festive schedule.

Wolves welcome back Christophe Berra, who is expected to go straight back into the side as captain, but are still without Jody Craddock, Karl Henry, Dave Edwards and Adlene Guedioura.