West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson has praised his Wolves counterpart Mick McCarthy.
Baggies boss believes rival is a victim of his own success
West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson has praised his Wolves counterpart Mick McCarthy ahead of Sunday's encounter between the two sides.
Hodgson takes the Baggies to Molineux at the weekend for what is likely to be a frenetically fought derby clash.
And the Albion boss has spoken highly of McCarthy ahead of the game and believes that he has become a victim of his own success at Wolves.
McCarthy guided Wolves to promotion from the Championship in 2009 before securing Premier League survival in three consecutive campaigns.
Magnificent
But recent weeks have seen Wolves fans launch protests, with "Mac Out" banners calling for a replacement and bookmakers now have McCarthy as the odds-on favourite to be the next top-flight manager to lose his job.
Although pressure is starting to pile upon Wolves and McCarthy, Hodgson maintains that the Barnsley-born manager has done a fantastic job.
"Mick has done a magnificent job at Wolves and so has the club owner Steve Morgan," he said.
"Mick took them up and then stayed in the Premier League but then people want to see you move on even further and the expectations go up.
Battle
"Unfortunately when you bring teams up, the barrier gets raised and, if you don't bring the players in to match that, then it can be very difficult."
Despite Wolves sitting on the brink of the relegation zone with a lone point separating them from the drop zone, Hodgson believes they will fight to the death in order to retain their Premier League status.
"The world of football is full of people who do good jobs taking their teams up and then losing their job because they can't do as well in the league above," he added.
"But Wolves are a very competitive team and will battle right to the end of the season."
