Kevin McDonald is preparing for fixtures against teams he has already scored against this season with the ambition of helping Wolves turn recent draws into wins.
Wolves welcome Preston to Molineux on Saturday, followed by heading to Huddersfield the following weekend, teams against whom the Scottish midfielder found the net earlier in the campaign.
He admits that his more withdrawn current role will make it difficult to add to that tally, but is more concerned with Wolves trying to come out of a run of three successive draws by taking all three points.
“We need to win games,” says McDonald.
“We should have beaten Bolton – whether it was 1-0 or 2-0 we should have won that and everyone was disappointed we didn’t.
“But we are not that far away.
“Sometimes things just don’t happen for you like the James Henry chance at Reading where we would probably have gone on and won.
“That didn’t go in and then Bolton have a big deflection against us to equalise late on and those things can happen in football.
“We are in a solid position in the league right now and obviously we want to kick on because in this league a few results can take you anywhere.
“We need to turn those draws into wins.
“We will be grafting away each game and no one wants to get in the play offs any more than us.
“You have to set out and make sure you are solid in games and can’t just go gung-ho in the first ten minutes.
“We need to defend well and then when we have the ball we have got really good players to create chances.
“It’s the same as every team – first and foremost you want a clean sheet and if you get that then you have got a chance.
“We will get the goals, I am sure we will.
“We all believe in ourselves. You always have rough patches, every team goes through it, and we’ve had a fair few draws now which I think shows we are not too far away.
“Anything can happen in this league – a couple of goals, couple of wins and you can be right up there.”
McDonald is still keen to help in getting those goals, but is operating more of a protective role in the current Wolves formation protecting the back four.
“I’m in a deeper role just now so the sort of passes I played to Benik last season are going to be more rare at the moment,” he added.
“But when I do get the chance I am going to try and play it and create goals.
“My main job at the moment is protecting the defence and it is all about that.
“We are trying to keep clean sheets and get wins and I am a big part of the defensive side of things.
“I had a shot at Reading which was over and getting those in will also be rarer.
“But I am happy to have a go when I get into the right position.
“I am always delighted to score and will try and do that but if not then still create for the more attacking players in the side to score goals.”
The third of Wolves’ recent run of draws came at Reading on Saturday, where McDonald feels Wolves could have emerged with more than just the solitary point.
“It was a tough game on Saturday,” he added.
“Conditions were difficult with the rain and swirling wind and the pitch wasn’t the greatest.
“But it was the same for both teams.
“You just have to get on with it and it’s a good point although we could have sneaked it at the end.
“We had a good performance for spells of the game and maybe had them on the ropes but all in all a draw was probably a fair result.
“The Bolton game was a poor performance and felt like a loss for everyone involved.
“So it was important we got something at Reading.
“We’ve had a few away games where we have done well and played some good football at times.”
