Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy has admitted that he is looking forward to returning to Molineux tonight as his side take on former club Wolverhampton Wanderers looking to get back to winning ways.
The 57-year-old enjoyed a fruitful six-year stint in the Midlands, getting Wolves promoted to the Premier League in 2009 and keeping them in the top flight until his dismissal in 2012.
Since taking over at Portman Road in 2012, McCarthy has enjoyed an unbeaten five-game head-to-head record against his former side but enters the match on a two-game losing streak that has seen the Tractor Boys crash out of the EFL Cup to League Two outfit Stevenage and suffer defeat to Brentford in the league at the weekend.
Wolves, meanwhile, are three games unbeaten under new manager Walter Zenga, who was installed by the club's new heavy-spending Chinese owners Fosun at the end of last month.
"Walter Zenga has taken over, I have seen both their games now - they were 2-0 down against Rotherham and came back with a man short and drew two-all," McCarthy told the Ipswich Star.
"I watched the game against Reading and they have not suddenly changed and got loads of new players in, they have got two or three, but it's predominantly the team we played against last season.
"It's hard to suddenly put a load of new players in a team, that's a recipe for disaster, we are seeing it at Newcastle I guess with the best Championship players. Seven or eight have gone there and they have lost two games which seems incredible."
Reflecting on his own time in the Wolves hotseat, McCarthy added: "When [former owner] Steve Morgan was there I bought Christophe Berra and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, we got promoted and had a great time.
"I'm not bemoaning it. We did not have [money] particularly lavishly in the Premier League but nevertheless we stayed there for two seasons and may well have stayed a third, I've got to say they would have had they not sacked me. I had done it for the two seasons prior."
Town are the longest-serving club in the Championship and are competing in the second tier of English football for the 15th consecutive season.
Neil Wilkes
