If Roger Johnson was in any doubt as to his popularity with the Wolverhampton Wanderers’ faithful it came at around 3.34pm last Saturday.

His ugly face-to-face spat with Wayne Hennessey led to loud chants of the goalkeeper’s name by the South Bank. The captain was seen as the villain of the piece.

Johnson’s form is bad enough.

Even if it wasn’t a penalty he was certainly culpable for going to ground too quickly against Bolton’s Mark Davies for their leveller before allowing Kevin Davies a simple route to goal for the Trotters’ third.

But the wider question is to Johnson’s influence on the rest of the dressing room.

Wolves legend Kenny Hibbitt believes the altercation with Hennessey “speaks volumes” of the unrest behind the scenes.

“When teams are struggling that’s what happens,” he said.

“You take the Liverpool situation with Pepe Reina and Andy Carroll. Liverpool are having a bad time at the minute and they are starting to point the finger at certain players. That may be the reason why they are down there.

“It’s all right saying Wolves had a lot of the game on Saturday – and they did play quite well and probably should have won the match – but when you see players fighting on the pitch, or going head to head, it is sad to see and you know there’s problems there.”

Undeniably Johnson’s biggest misdemeanour so far was in turning up to training the worse for wear, which earned a club fine.

Hibbitt said: “He has been a disappointment. I am looking from the outside, like a lot of fans do, and you can only go on what you read and what you hear.