Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today declared he wants his team to “get physical” again this season.

McCarthy’s side were vilified by the national media for tackles against Newcastle and Fulham at the start of last campaign when they had seven players booked in both games.

They were criticised again when Karl Henry was sent off for a crude lunge against Wigan.

Wolves eventually finished 13th in the Premier League’s fair-play table and McCarthy maintains the reputation Wolves earned was grossly unfair and counted against them.

“It kind of suited them to give them a stick to beat us with at the time,” said the boss.

“But it did us a real disservice because we were going to away grounds and the fans were screaming ‘dirty Wolves’ at any tackle that went in.

“Some of the staff from other teams were using it to get at the officials, saying ‘look, it’s Wolves, they’re always kicking this and that’. And yet nothing could be further from the truth.

“If the truth be known, I’d like my team to be a bit more like that because we’re not dirty, cynical, nasty or overly aggressive, we’re competitive.

“That’s all what anyone can ever say about us.

“But it took us a lot of time to recover because we stopped tackling, and if you don’t compete in the Premier League, you soon suffer. And while we stopped tackling, a lot of other teams were railroading us all over the place.”