Last night, Mick McCarthy came to United and fielded a completely under-strength side. Of the eleven that started against Tottenham at the weekend, only the goalkeeper remained the same.

Wolves play Burnley on Sunday and Mick McCarthy’s thinking seemed to be, “Well, it doesn’t matter who I put out against Manchester United, we are going to lose the game anyway so I might as well rest my ‘proper’ team for the far more winnable game against Burnley”.

Thoroughly understandable, I suppose, but Premier League rules do state that “In every League Match each participating Club shall field a full strength team“.

We all know that this doesn’t always happen and in these days of squad rotation, it isn’t always easy to say what exactly is a club’s “full strength team”.

It was probably Fergie who started all of this squad rotation mallarky but the difference when Fergie does it is that he still puts out a team that he fully expects to win the game.

With the team Mick McCarthy put out last night, there was absolutely no chance of them beating Manchester United at Old Trafford and the 3-0 scoreline could have been a lot worse had United taken full advantage of their chances and possession.

For the 2,400 travelling Wolves fans who had paid around £40 each to watch “their team”, you can only have sympathy. They shouldn’t have bothered because their manager certainly didn’t.

My main concern about this is that it could start a trend amongst the “lesser” clubs in the division.

The integrity of the league demands that every team gives 100% in every game and puts out the best team that they possibly can.

If the lower clubs start to effectively “throw” the matches against the top teams and decide that the best thing to do is just battle it out amongst themselves in their own “mini-league” then it just makes a farce of the whole thing.

I am also quite sure that anyone connected with Chelsea last night were absolutely fuming that Mick McCarthy basically handed us the three points.

As for his players, one of the things about achieving promotion from the Championship to the Premier League is that even if you are eventually relegated, you do at least get to pit yourselves against the Manchester Uniteds of this world, to play in the biggest stadiums in the country in front of the biggest crowds. He denied his players that opportunity last night.

I suppose we now have to wait and see if Wolves do actually beat Burnley at the weekend and, in the longer term, avoid relegation. If Mick McCarthy achieves both of those outcomes then we probably have to say “fair enough” but if he doesn’t then I hope he regrets last night (and any other times he might do it between now and the end of the season) because he will have cheated his players, his fans and the Premier League as a whole.

Over to you Mick.