Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Michael Mancienne has defended his team-mates after being labelled a dirty team in recent weeks.
Captain Karl Henry has found himself at the centre of the controversy after three highly-charged Premier League contests.
He was criticised for a number of crunching tackles on Joey Barton in the draw with Newcastle United and was then branded for the challenge that broke Bobby Zamora's ankle in the loss with Fulham before seeing red after just ten minutes for a scything tackle on Wigan Athletic's Jordi Gomez.
But Mancienne has insisted manager Mick McCarthy doesn't ask for the players to demonstrate aggressive behaviour on the pitch.
"Joey Barton was never targeted in the Newcastle game, nothing was said like that. Karl Henry likes to put his foot in and that's what he was doing. No-one was targeted at all," he said.
"We have a lot of this talk around us but we do play football at Wolves.
"Karl Henry has been dug out a little bit but sometimes it isn't always his fault. It was a bad challenge against Wigan but the challenge that broke Bobby Zamora's ankle wasn't.
"It is hard to shrug off this image once you are labelled with it. People will always think we just turn up and kick everyone. It doesn't affect our frame of mind. We go into every game with the same mindset.
"Mick would never encourage us not to tackle and be committed. You have to psych yourself up for every game. You have to want it but you have to be calm at the same time. You can be over-psyched but it's important to be calm and we have that in our team."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email