Kevin Phillips: Wolves pose tough question for us all

After a bit of a barren period for Derby, it’s been nice to get back to winning ways, and we visit Wolves off the back of two victories.

Confidence is high in the camp, and we will try and transfer that on to the pitch, but we know it’s going to be difficult.

In some ways the pressure is on Wolves, because they will want to get promotion confirmed as quickly as they can.

We have to be positive in our approach, because we’ve seen plenty of teams get turned over by Nuno’s men if they’ve shown any shred of doubt in their approach.

We’ve shown this season that, on our day, we’re capable of hurting anyone, but the key is go about it with belief, and remove any negativity from our minds.

This Wolves team is brimming with talent, but Ruben Neves is the player we’ve got to try and keep quiet if we can.

When you pay that sort of money for a player who’s been in the Champions League, you always expect him to deliver, but performing in the Championship is still a big ask.

Neves has shown his quality throughout the season, not only is he a great passer, but he’s deadly from set-pieces too, as he showed in Cardiff last week.

Alongside Fulham, Wolves play some of the best football in the Championship, but the big thing for me this season is that when teams have gone physical against them, they’ve stood up to the task.

Nuno has got some big, powerful players in that team, and they’re not afraid to mix it.

None of them shied away from the battle against Cardiff, who are one of the most physical and direct teams in the league. That is not an easy place to go.

I have never seen an ending to a football match quite like that in all my time of playing and coaching.

It was quite remarkable and sums up the Championship.

It means that all of a sudden, Cardiff are looking over their shoulders at Fulham.

But even though the Cottagers are in electric form at the moment, I still expect Warnock to rally his troops and get his side over the line.

He’s experienced enough to bounce back from that defeat, regardless of how crushing it was.

There has been a lot of focus on what happened at full-time between Nuno and Neil Warnock, but my response is, of course that’s going to take place when emotions are running so high.

You can’t tell me Warnock wouldn’t have celebrated like Nuno did had Cardiff won the game and Wolves had missed two penalties in injury time?

Nuno apologised afterwards, as he should, but sometimes you overreact in the heat of the battle.

I remember Huddersfield boss David Wagner sprinting past our bench and diving into the crowd.

It was a similarly provocative celebration, but he couldn’t contain himself.

When we reach this part of the season and there is so much on the line, these things happen.

That little episode came after Warnock was made Championship manager of the season over Nuno.

But for me, the manager of the season is Neil Harris at Millwall.

He’s done an incredible job, considering where they were this time last year.

Millwall would have just been looking to consolidate their position in the Championship this season, but he’s taken them on a remarkable run that has left them on the edge of the play-offs.

Of course Nuno deserves a lot of credit, but he’s also had a lot of money to spend. Okay, he’s spent it wisely, but Neil’s done wonders with Millwall on limited funds.

On Wednesday, we will be hoping to ward off the likes of Millwall and cement our place in the play-offs.

Those that are in there want to finish the season as strongly as possible, but Villa are having something of a wobble at the moment.

It’ll be a slight concern, but Steve Bruce is a wise old manager who will be able to get his team back on track before the end of the season. Automatic promotion is now probably out of reach, but I still expect them to enter the play-offs in good form. Hopefully we’ll be there to meet them, and a win on Wednesday would go a long way towards that. It should be an absolute cracker.