Powell not overly surprised by Wolves' problems in Championship

The West Midlands outfit will arrive at The Valley sitting 21st in the Championship and with nine first-team players out through either injury or suspension.

But despite this, Powell refused to accept Saturday will be straight forward and highlighted some of Wanderers’ remaining Premier League pedigree. “They’re going to miss some quality players,” he said.

“They will have Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Jamie O’Hara out, and they are good players who graced the Premier League last year.

“You look at Wolves who are traditionally well supported, they will bring a lot of fans to our ground and their wage bill will be quite high.

“They’re still getting parachute money and it’s quite amazing they’re in this position, but they are and they have to do their best to get out of it.”

Powell added: “They have three games to remedy that, but they’re up against us and we need to show people we can handle three games in a week again.

“I did ask for seven points from this week again, like what we did in the previous week when we had three games, and we’re on course to achieve that.

“No matter what XI they have out, though, they have good experience of this level.

“Roger Johnson, Kaspers Gorkes, Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt, Stephen Ward, Karl Henry – they are all good players at this level.

“But I have got full trust in mine no matter who we play and, as we showed the other day, they’re more than capable of playing, competing and doing some good things in this league.

“So we’re going to have to do that against Wolves and I’ll be looking for us to take the game to them.”

The current predicament Wolves find themselves in is not too dissimilar to when the Addicks were relegated from the Premier League in 2007.

Charlton never really adapted to the Championship then and although they finished mid-table under Alan Pardew in 2008, they went down 12 months later to League One Wolves, however, face the prospect of back-to-back relegations and Powell is not overly surprised to see it happening to clubs on a regular basis.

He explained: “There is the intensity of the league, the getting used to the league and also it’s the getting your heads around, supporters included, you are a Championship club.

“That is your status and that is one problem that we had.

“Leeds had it and ended up in League One, Southampton had it for a bit.

“Leicester when I was there bounced straight back, but you have got to be used to your surroundings.

“You’re not in the Premier League anymore, you won’t be on Sky every day, you’re still a terrific football club but you have got to get your head around where you are.

“I think that is where a lot of teams struggle, they have still got a Premier League mentality.

“But you have got to say to yourself and say to your club ‘this is where we are at’.

“You have got to do your best to get out of it but for the time being we are a 46-game a season club, not a 38 and the quicker you do that, then that will bode well for you.”

Powell added: “There are a lot of sides who think they are still in the Premier League and then they’ll play a side who have a quarter of their budget, that has not as many fans in the away section but they’ll go there and beat them and I think that becomes a wake-up call.

“Having seen the problems that have happened at Wolves and Blackburn, where all of a sudden they’re changing manager because they're not used to playing at the level.

“Bolton changed their manager, he (Owen Coyle) was used to the level, but in their heads they would have been thinking, because of where they have been, ‘we should be in the top three’ and I think that is something that clubs have to get used to.

“If everyone has the ambition to bounce back, then it can happen.

“It has been tough for them all.

“Only Bolton look like having a chance of bouncing straight back.

“It is tough for clubs when they get relegated, but it is something you have to get your heads around sooner rather than later.”

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