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Kevin Doyle celebrates his winner against QPR. Phil Cole/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Long Goodbye

Friends forever: No hard feelings towards Mick, says Doyle

Kevin Doyle insists that Mick McCarthy’s decision to drop him in recent weeks never changed his opinion of the boss.

MICK MCCARTHY’S SACKING has left Kevin Doyle and his Wolves team-mates feeling guilty about their poor run of form.

McCarthy’s time at Molineux came to a sudden end when he was sacked on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after a humiliating 5-1 defeat at home to Midlands rivals West Brom in the Black Country derby.

Doyle scored the winner as a second-half substitute against QPR the week before, and then was chosen to lead the line on Sunday in what turned out to be McCarthy’s final act.

Although the West Brom game was only his second Premier League start since 17 December, the Republic of Ireland international said today that he bears no ill-will towards the manager for leaving him out of the side.

“Whether you are playing or not playing – and I didn’t play for probably the last month – it didn’t change my feelings towards the manager,” Doyle said in an interview with the club website.

“I didn’t think all of a sudden that he was this, that, or the other, I still respected him one hundred per cent and wanted to do well for him and that’s massive.

Players wanted to do well for him and that makes it that bit harder when he does have to leave because we all respected him massively and got on with him as a [person], not just as a manager.

So it is tough in that regard from a personal point of view.

Sunday’s defeat took Wolves’ tally to just 14 points from their last 22 games, a dispiriting run which has seen them drop into the relegation zone, two points off the bottom.

Far from putting all the blame on McCarthy, Doyle says that the players have to hold their hands up and take some responsibility.

“It is never nice because we all feel culpable, we are all part of it. I just wish we could have played that bit better and not ended up with the manager having to leave.”

The last few days have been tough but we have to get over it and get ourselves going again.

Wolves are not in action again until their trip to Newcastle on Saturday week, giving chairman Steve Morgan and the board a bit of breathing space before they appoint McCarthy’s successor.

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