Dean Saunders vows to halt slide at Wolves

Wolves were nine points off both the play-offs and the drop zone when Saunders was appointed.

That gap is now 14 points to the top six and just two above the bottom three as Wolves languish in 21st place in the Championship with 16 games left.

Saturday's visit of Leeds highlights a wretched home run of one win in 11 at Molineux, while they have gone eight games without a victory.

Saunders is convinced the players are good enough to keep Wolves in the Championship, but admitted they can't look any higher.

"We've got enough to keep us in the division as we are," said Saunders. "We've got good enough players.

"I watched them train on Monday morning and there are a lot of them who train properly, they put their foot in and they want to win.

"They're all moaning about decisions and the attitude has been good in training. But I've been brought here because something is wrong. I've got to sort it out and I will."

Asked if it was now purely about a battle to stay up, the Wolves boss said: "Yes. You look at the league table and think 'we shouldn't be there'.

"But if we're not careful, relegation can happen. You can slide into trouble like we've done.

"We stopped the rot with two draws and we had two narrow defeats which could have gone the other way and if we'd won, we could be 12th or 13th. I don't think we're far away from putting a run together."

Wins for Mick McCarthy's Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham and Barnsley deepened the gloom for Wolves last weekend.

Ipswich – bottom when Wolves were third at the time McCarthy took over – are two points and two places ahead. Saunders admits he is concerned at the improved form in the teams around them.

"The teams around us and below seem to have won, so my main objective now is we stay up," he admitted.