Ronald Zubar believes the hurt of Sunday's derby disappointment at the hands of Birmingham will drive Wolves on as they bid to upset the odds as Tottenham visit Molineux tonight.
But the French defender is also confident Wolves have responded to that "hurt" and are in positive mood for the latest tough assignment with sixth-placed Spurs.
Kevin Phillips's two late goals for Blues at St Andrew's certainly took the gloss off what was an otherwise impressive away performance - Zubar included - but he believes a repeat of that display will see Wolves at the very least go close in tonight's return to action.
"Crystal Palace had been a bad performance from everyone and we needed a response against Birmingham," he said.
"I think we produced a positive and aggressive performance and should have got the points.
"Now we have another big game with Tottenham - every game is going to be a big game now.
"If we can play as we did against Birmingham we have a chance.
"There is still a good team spirit here with everyone supporting each other even if they are not in the team.
"There are no heads dropped, everyone came in to training again this week with a positive attitude and ready to prepare properly.
"We were hurting to lose against Birmingham and we don't want to feel that again.
"The fear of that hurt has driven us on in training and we are hoping to go out and put on another good performance tonight."
The lower end of the table is certainly very much concertina-d now, as Zubar explains: "We're 19th in the table but it's very close and if you win a game you can climb the table.
"We need to be taking something from as many games as possible.
"Tottenham will be wanting all three points after drawing with Aston Villa at home but we are now the home side and believe we can get something.
"It's going to be a big crowd with a good atmosphere and everything is ready for us to play a good game and hopefully take the points."
It has been something of a personal rollercoaster ride for the former Marseille stopper in recent weeks.
Getting forward he has been involved in providing a fair few assists not to mention his FA Cup thunderbolt against Crystal Palace.
But he was disappointed with his decision-making at Hull recently when a rash challenge gave away a penalty, an event which he is determined to learn from.
"The Hull game was a mistake by me," he conceded.
"The gaffer spoke with me afterwards and told me I couldn't carry on doing that.
"It was maybe that after we had equalised I was just so keen and excited to try and get the ball that I made the mistake.
"But I have to learn from it, and work in training and matches to make sure I don't do it again.
"It's important for all of us not to make individual mistakes.
"Sometimes the team has played well but there have been mistakes which have cost us.
"We all need to concentrate for 90-95 minutes and stay in the game and not make any mistakes."
Zubar continued: "I've been fairly pleased with my form recently.
"Against Birmingham I was up against a good player in James McFadden who I remember scoring a great goal against the French national team.
"I tried to close him down and win every first ball because he's obviously a good player.
"I feel I played a decent game towards my top level and just need to maintain that standard between now and the end of the season.
"I know that my first job is to defend and to try and stop the goals going in.
"But when I can I also try to get forward and help the midfield or even the strikers.
"I feel myself and Kevin Foley have been working well together over the last few games and showing good movement.
"I was pleased to get the ball to Kevin against Birmingham and from his cross eventually Kevin Doyle produced the finish.
"I am happy for that but it doesn't mean a great deal when we lose the game."
In using the Birmingham misery as motivation for tonight's next encounter, Zubar admits the team needed to act as "lions" in the closing stages to see the game out.
Unfortunately it didn't happen.
But the first part of this week has been very much about channelling the disappointment to positive effect, hoping it will result in another good performance come 7.45pm this evening.
"Sunday was a derby game which was a big game for everybody," Zubar concluded.
"Birmingham had a good start but we stayed firm and didn't make any mistakes and after the early stages we started playing well.
"We produced a good performance but when you're 1-0 up away from home in a derby game with ten minutes to go you have to hang onto it.
"You have to play like lions for the last few minutes and want to win every ball to see out the game.
"In the last ten minutes it was Birmingham who played like the lions and got the two goals which won them the match.
"I don't think over the 90 minutes they were better than us but they won it and for us to produce a good performance for 80 minutes wasn't enough.
"After the game the gaffer told us we should have won the game or at least taken a point but after that it was a case of all of us getting back in on Monday in a positive mood.
"We had to get our minds focused on Tottenham and tonight's game."
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