City gave Wolves a Carling Cup scare to leave Stuart McCall declaring: I'm really proud of the boys.

A double blast straight after half-time from Freddy Eastwood and Jody Craddock eased the home side into round two last night despite a reply from Kyle Nix on his debut.

But McCall saw plenty to cheer about from his side's battling efforts at Molineux.

He said: "I don't like losing anything but to come here and get beaten by a Championship side is no disgrace. There were far more positives than negatives.

"The spirit in the dressing room now is one of togetherness, which is what we're aiming for, and we can look forward to going to Shrewsbury on Saturday which, in my eyes, is a far more important game."

Midfielder Nix was handed his first start as McCall opted for a more cautious formation with only one man up front.

McCall said: "We did that against Burnley in pre-season and he did ever so well. That system suits him.

"Whether we play that a lot this season will be debatable. I like to go away from home and attack sides but sometimes it will be horses for courses.

"We left a couple of boys out with an eye on Saturday but when Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu and Alex Rhodes came on they gave us extra pace up top and I thought G' looked very dangerous.

"I didn't see a problem in the first half and we probably had the three best chances, especially when Evo (Paul Evans) hit the bar.

"But they got a decent first goal and when you see a terrific strike like their centre half got for the second, then you have to hold your hands up.

"They had a little spell after the goals when we had a wobble but we came back really well. It would have been easy to crumble completely when we went 2-0 down but I'm proud of the character we showed and it was nice to score.

"I'm even more pleased that they took my instructions on board and didn't get an equaliser! The last thing we wanted was extra-time."

McCall also praised the travelling supporters and said: "A good number came down, sung their hearts out and hopefully we'll have a good travelling bunch on Saturday."

Meanwhile, City have finally confirmed the Macclesfield crowd figure as 14,345 - nearly 1,000 more than originally announced.

Joint-chairman Julian Rhodes said: "We're not used to such big crowds obviously and had a problem counting! But we're delighted it's even bigger than we first thought."

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