Wolves followed up their victories over Blackburn and Fulham with a hard fought goalless draw at Villa Park which put them level on points with Liverpool and Chelsea. McCarthy, whose side only escaped relegation on the final day of last season, is a realist and knows the picture can quickly change but has taken encouragement from the opening fortnight of the campaign. He said: "Being near the top of the league doesn't bother me to be honest - but being unbeaten does. "Of course, I'd have taken the position we are in after three games, especially with two of them having been away from home. "We've had a great start in terms of results and a good start in terms of performances. "Sometimes you look at results and wonder how you've got them. "But I look at our performances and know we've played well in all of the games and that's encouraging. "Somebody has said we were looking more mature as a team and that's where we've been trying to get." McCarthy added: "We deserved to stay up last season, even if it was in the final minutes, and hopefully we will continue to improve and get better this year. "We've started well and have looked solid at the back but I know how quickly that can change in this league. "You can lose three, four, five games on the bounce even when you're playing well." McCarthy knows expectation levels will increase given Wolves' fine start as they head into the international break. He said: "We can't do anything about the international break but we come back to two home games and I'm sure expectation will be high. "But let's remember one of them is against Spurs and the other is QPR who will have built all and sundry by the time they come to us." Wolves midfielder Stephen Hunt admitted: "We didn't play as well as we can do but it's not always going to be like that. "Maybe last year we might have got beat 1-0 but we dogged it out and could have even nicked. That is important because not every week can you can play nice football, free-flowing football. "As each week goes by, if we can pick up points and wins, then the confidence will grow."
