From Dave Jones to Corporal Jones

"Don't panic" - that was very much the message coming out from Wolves today from both Mick McCarthy and the upper echelons of Molineux power.

The vitriol may be continuing apace from the internet messageboards but McCarthy, Jez Moxey and Steve Morgan are quite probably the three calmest people at the football club if the signs are to be believed.

McCarthy visibly bristled and pretty much lost his rag when asked about his future by a BBC Radio reporter in the wake of Saturday's miserable FA Cup exit to Cardiff.

But at today's press conference ahead of the now crucial visit of Scunthorpe tomorrow night, the manager explained that was only because he didn't feel it was a question he should have been asked in the emotion-charged wake of a dreadful defeat.

This morning, at Compton, and in front of a small group of regulars who cover Wolves, he was far more disposed to discuss his current predicament.

And he did it matter-of-factly, eloquently, and with the steely determination that he WILL turn things round after the current run of results and have Wolves fighting for the play-offs by the end of the season.

We are also led to believe that both Moxey and Morgan are perfectly content to give McCarthy time which, in football's modern-day culture, is to their credit.

Of course things can still change ever so quickly, and a failure to overcome the banana skin of basement boys Scunthorpe tomorrow night will not go down well.

But for now at least, all is calm, "Don't panic" as Corporal Jones would say.

And whatever happens on the football pitch, life goes on.

McCarthy had to quickly and temporarily hot-foot it home after the press conference to sort out a problem which had seen wife Fiona without central heating.

A Wolves manager then who is not feeling the heat either at home or in work.