CHRIS LAKEY Peter Grant is looking to settle some scores this afternoon as he squares up with a man he used to fight with “like cat and dog”.

CHRIS LAKEY

Peter Grant is looking to settle some scores this afternoon as he squares up with a man he used to fight with “like cat and dog”.

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has the upper hand on meetings with his former Celtic team-mate Grant, after a draw at Molineux last December was followed by a 1-0 Wolves victory at Carrow Road in January.

City did enough in both games than to end up with just a point from both meetings, and Grant admits it's the perfect incen tive to get one over his old pal.

“Of course - there's nothing better than beating your pals,” said Grant, who only days ago was suffering a 2-0 loss to his former boss, Alan Pardew, now in charge at Charlton.

“After the last Wolves game here we played ever so well and I knew he would be saying yes they played fantastically well - but we beat them. I can write his scripts for him.

“In the games I felt we manoeuvred the ball well, never gave it away cheaply. We played very well, I felt, on both occasions last year. Matt Murray was magnificent in the game here - he made some wonder saves, but we had some terrible misses as well.

“In the game up there Wolves started well but an horrendous decision went against us before half-time, the boy was two yards inside the box (offside) and plays on and costs us a goal - and then we lose a goal in injury time for the equaliser.

“We were very disappointed with the overall points total from Wolves last year, but they have done very, very well and Mick took them to the verge (of promotion) last year. They had lost a few players, but he knew the players and knew the league well enough and he had to stabilise it and make it better.

“And now they have huge investment - yet again that allows you to bring players in that are a little bit different and he has managed to do that.”

Grant and McCarthy were together at Celtic in the late 80s, but the City boss admits he was something of a love-hate relationship.

“Mick was my room-mate - we're big pals and big rivals,” he said. “We used to kick lumps out of each other in training and that's when we were on the same team. He had a great willingness to win, that was the way we played, and that was the way we trained.

“He wanted to win every day and you can see that in the way his teams try to play and the way he coaches.

“We used to fight like cat and dog, but I don't think we ever had a cross word off the training pitch: a fantastic man, I've got a lot of time for him.”