After winning their opening two Premier League matches, McCarthy changed all 11 of his players from Saturday's success over Fulham to take on a side 82 league places beneath them. And two goals from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Nenad Milijas' classy free-kick and a late Sam Vokes strike vindicated his decision. "The games are difficult when you play against lower-league opposition. They are always highly motivated," said McCarthy. "Our attitude and application was going to decide the outcome, and I was delighted with that. "If I get that, then we have better players than them, so we should win. "It's been a pleasing start. It feels better than when you've got no points - and I've been in both situations. "So I'm pleased with it but we are not getting carried away." The Cobblers are tricky customers in the cups, having beaten Roy Hodgson's Liverpool on penalties at Anfield last season and seen off Championship Ipswich in the first round earlier this month. But there was to be no repeat after Adebayo Akinfenwa squandered a gilt-edged chance to put them ahead when he blazed over from three yards out. And Wolves rarely looked troubled after Ebanks-Blake fired them ahead. Debutant Jamie Reckord, who had a spell on loan with Northampton last season, floated in a diagonal cross which Ebanks-Blake chested down in the right-hand corner of the area before rifling his low shot past Sam Walker and into the net. The second goal arrived with eight minutes of the first half remaining, and a superb strike it was too. Arron Davies fouled Adam Hammill some 25 yards out and Milijas stepped up to curl his free-kick into the top corner as Walker stood and admired. The plucky hosts created more chances after the break but were picked off on the counter-attack 13 minutes from time when Michael Kightly raced to the byline and crossed for Ebanks-Blake to plant a simple header past Walker and into the net. And Vokes rubbed salt in the wounds with a minute to go when he smashed Matt Doherty's cross first time into the top corner. "The scoreline is disappointing," said Cobblers manager Gary Johnson. "They have quality and a Premier League mentality but we matched them for much of the game and could have been one or two up. "Nobody wants to hear that when the score is 4-0. But we were up against a good team and we will learn from it."
