Wolves 0 Manchester United 1

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy is confident his side will start picking up points soon - despite another Molineux defeat at the hands of Manchester United.

Paul Scholes was delighted to score his 100th league goal of his career to send United top of the Barclays Premier League.

Scholes settled a tense encounter with Wolves at Molineux 17 minutes from time, when he kept a cool head to beat Marcus Hahnemann after Jody Craddock's clearance had fallen nicely for the veteran midfielder.

United's failure to wrap up the match almost proved costly as Sam Vokes missed a glorious stoppage-time chance to level, blazing over from six yards despite being completely unmarked.

The defeat leaves Wolves above the drop zone on goal difference alone, having played a game more than Hull.

McCarthy said: "We have played well but we've got nothing out of it. And it's getting harder and harder to talk about it.

"The only thing we can do is maintain that standard and our belief, and our luck will change.

"We'll get a break. There's plenty of games to play.

"So we maintain our belief and, with those performances, I think we'll be okay."

McCarthy knows his side shot themselves in the foot somewhat -Êespecially with Vokes' late miss - and that they cannot afford to keep doing that if they are to remain in the top flight.

He added: "Sam would expect to score that. It doesn't matter how long you've been on the pitch. At one end there's a mistake and at the other it's a miss.

"A point would have been fantastic and we had the opportunity to get the equaliser but that's the story of our season.

"We've only scored 21 goals, not enough.

"No chance are we ever going to give up - while we've got breath in our bodies, we'll be scrapping.

"I firmly believe our luck will change and the only way it will change is by playing like that."

Scholes said of his goal: "I'm very pleased with that. To score goals is what you need to do to win games

"Thankfully it's fallen to me and I've managed to put it in. It was a difficult game. It was a tough pitch and a tough team to play against."

Defender Rio Ferdinand, returning from a back injury, admitted Vokes' late miss was something of a let-off for his side.

"I thought it was offside but Scholesy told me he thinks he played him on," he said. "Fortunately we got away with it.

"But overall we deserved our win, we created chances and we could have maybe scored a couple more.

"Under the conditions and circumstances I thought we played some good stuff, and Scholesy scored the all-important goal."