GIVEN the nature of their first meeting as players — you could forgive Gary Megson for dodging a post-match handshake with Mick McCarthy tomorrow afternoon.

For while the footballing world debates the merits of Arsene Wenger’s petulant touchline disappearing act against Manchester City on Wednesday night, the Wanderers boss really would have a legitimate reason to nip back down the tunnel a few moments early at Molineux.

“Years and years ago, Big Jack Charlton came up with the idea of marking from corners how they had done at Leeds,” recalled Megson of his days as a young midfielder at Sheffield Wednesday in the early 1980s.

“The best header was left free and all the small ones, like myself, marked and blocked their big players.

“I was detailed to look after Mick and it worked great for the first one. The second one he just punched me straight between the eyes and I was down on the floor. Jack thought it was great. I didn’t go near him again.”

Thankfully, Megson’s relationship with McCarthy has improved in the intervening years and the two friends will share a drink after a game he admits both are desperate to win.

“Mick’s a good guy,” he said. “I know him from that Irish suburb he’s from... Barnsley.

“They are all big games but in the scheme of things the fact that they are second bottom and we are third bottom makes it a huge game for us.

“Mick said their next three home matches against Birmimgham, ourselves and Burnley, they needed to get results from. They didn’t against Birmingham, so that puts huge emphasis on Saturday.”

Manchester City aside — tomorrow’s trip to the Midlands begins a sequence of six games against sides currently in the bottom half of the table.

And it is at the end of December that Megson says his side can be better judged.

“It’s a big month both in terms of the number of games we have got and the teams we are playing against,” he said.

“This last few years we have always done okay against the teams around us at the time. We have got to continue that.

“Come the end of December, hopefully we are in a much better league position, and that will have meant that — Arsenal excepted — we will have played everyone once, and then we can move on from that.”