McCarthy salutes fiery encounter

Mick McCarthy refused to criticise the physical nature of Wolves' draw with Newcastle which saw 12 yellow cards brandished.

Wolves were the worst offenders, picking up seven of the dirty dozen, in a fiery encounter which saw the two sides battle out a 1-1 draw on Saturday.

McCarthy, a tough tackling defender in his youth, had no predicament with the level of commitment shown and compared it to an old fashioned game of football.

"There were plenty of tackles flying in, it was like a throw-back to a different age," McCarthy told Sky Sports.

"There was a competitive edge to the game, I've no problem with that at all, if you take that away from the game it'll be a worse game for it."

McCarthy was pleased with referee's Stuart Attwell's overall handling of the fiery affair, but couldn't hide his disappointment with a particular decision in the second half.

Newcastle's James Perch swiped at the feet of Matthew Jarvis, who had cut in from the left, but the official saw no contact and awarded a goal-kick, to the disbelief of the Wolves midfielder.

Penalty claim

McCarthy was also aggrieved, admitting: "I think we should have had a penalty, I wasn't certain at the time but I've just looked at it and he's brought Jarvis down.

"We just couldn't get the second goal, I think 2-0 would have killed the game off, but it didn't come."

Substitute Ronald Zubar gave away a sloppy free-kick on 62 minutes, becoming one of the yellow card victims in the process, and from Joey Barton's delivery Andy Carroll headed the visitors level.

"They got a goal from the restart which I'm disappointed with," said McCarthy. "The fact that we gave the free-kick away and then we didn't mark properly."

McCarthy was, however, delighted with striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake's contribution and is pleased to see the 24-year-old get off to a good start this campaign after struggling last time around.

"A lot of people questioned his ability to play in the Premiership - I wasn't one of them," said the Wolves boss.

"He's been excellent in pre-season. He's worked hard and deserved his starting place today and he confirmed that by scoring the goal.

"I'm delighted, we're all delighted to have seven points. We've had a hard earned point, last year we may have lost this."