Wolves pair in fitness fight

Wolves duo Michael Kightly and Jay Bothroyd are facing a race against time to overcome their Black Country derby injuries in time to face Colchester on Wednesday.

Manager Mick McCarthy hailed his Wolves players for closing the derby gap which cost them a promotion chance last season.

But yesterday's goalless draw at The Hawthorns came at a cost with winger Kightly and striker Bothroyd now battling to recover in time to face the Us at Molineux.

Kightly limped off with an ankle strain and was followed by Bothroyd, who suffered a dead leg. Both are now doubts for Wednesday.

Kightly said: "I tried to run it off for five minutes but it was quite painful and I couldn't carry on. I was absolutely gutted to have to come off but I'd have been more upset if I had to miss games because I'd made things worse by staying on. Now I'm just hoping for a quick recovery."

The injuries to the attacking duo were the only blight on McCarthy's weekend after the Wolves boss took his team back to the scene of their promotion play-off semi-final heartache for yesterday's 155th Black Country derby and watched them emerge with a point from an honours-even contest.

It was another heartening signal for McCarthy at his team's steady advances during six derby battles in a little more than a year.

Wolves were well beaten 3-0 in the corresponding fixture in October 2006 and went on to lose three of the four which followed.

"We came here as underdogs last season and there wasn't a doubt that they had the edge," he said. "But we have come back and matched them in terms of power, pace, technical ability - last year I don't think we were able to do that."