SIMON Charlton spoke today of the rejection that is inspiring him to prove he can still perform at the highest level.

The Wanderers' full-back, dumped by Southampton three years ago, has been a Reebok revelation this season, playing a key role in a defence that has stood up to some of the best strikers in Europe and cocking a snook at the manager who showed him the door.

"It was the manager who's at Wolves now ...," he says, struggling to find the name that has been confined to the back of his memory bank for the past three years. "... Dave Jones!

"He was wrong and I'm trying to prove it to everybody. I'm even trying to prove it to myself that I can still perform in the Premiership."

Charlton's determination is typical of the forces that are driving Wanderers on as they bid to beat the odds. Sam Allardyce has assembled a team of determined men - young and old - who are not fancied by the pundits but have produced performances that have put spokes in the wheels of three of the Championship chasers ... Liverpool, Leeds and Arsenal.

"I was disappointed about leaving Southampton," he recalls of the day he left The Dell after five seasons and more than 100 Premiership games. "It's a great club and a lovely place to live. You understand you have to leave a club some time, for whatever reason, but you never enjoy it.

"Managers come and managers go and you don't always see eye to eye. He (Jones) brought Lee Todd with him from Stockport and I knew my time was up. He tried to get me to go to Millwall, but eventually Trevor (Francis) came in for me and I got a good move to Birmingham. The rest is history."

The Charlton timeline featured four seasons at St Andrews before Allardyce snapped him up on a free transfer - a deal which paid off handsomely when the Huddersfield-born defender fought back from injury and became a key figure in last season's promotion success.

"I take great pride in playing the Premiership," he says enthusiastically, "having worked so hard to get there. I'm enjoying it more than anyone else.

"You've got to enjoy it, even though we know what we are up against, we've got to keep smiling.

"Actually it makes me laugh. The day after we clinched promotion Ladbrokes were quoting us as something daft like 2,000-1 to be relegated. Now, even after the start we've had, a couple of dodgy results and people are saying 'Here it comes ... their bubble's burst!'

"It doesn't matter what people say, we've got a great team spirit and we know we've played well. We've had two defeats at home but in the Southampton game we hit the post twice and got hit with a bad goal. It was the same against Sunderland - we miss a penalty then concede two very sloppy goals.

"We know we have to improve on our play when we have the ball but we are all still learning at this level, even the older players because we've been out of the Premiership for a while.

"We'll end up getting it right but the Premier League doesn't allow for two many mistakes."