Wolves boss Mick McCarthy happy to allow Stoke towel tactics

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today insisted he is happy to 'throw in the towel' to allow Stoke to launch their missiles on Saturday.

Stoke defender Ryan Shotton was revealed to have a towel on the inside of his shirt to wipe the ball for better grip to hurl it from throw-ins during the Potters' 2-1 win over Tottenham last Sunday.

Throw-ins are a major piece of Stoke's attacking armoury, but both sides must agree on the use of towels for setpieces.

McCarthy, who was a long-throw specialist himself as a player, said he had no issue with the gimmick.

"I have no objection to it," he said. "Whatever they want to do is fine by me. If it's zipped into his shirt then it's very difficult to stop him. And if they make every Stoke shirt with a towel in it, what can you do about it?"

Instead, the Wolves boss would prefer his players to stop the potential damage caused by the huge throws.

"What I think you can do is defend the throw in the first place," he said.

"I never used to wipe my hands on anything and I could throw the ball to the far post. I'm not bothered about all that caper, no. Defend it.

Nobody can stop the ball coming in because it's a restart, a dead ball."

McCarthy said defending set-pieces has changed from his days as a player, with more regard to stopping the player than defending the ball.

"Whether you head it or stop the other bloke heading it, it's not something I grew up with," he added. "As a defender, you stop the other fellow but you go and head it."

McCarthy believes there are a lot of off-the-ball incidents now. "There's a lot of grappling going on," he said.

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