Dunne's wake-up call for World Cup

Kevin Keegan admits he is having to be indulgent with the wayward youngster Richard Dunne – but claims the Irishman has never had a greater incentive to put his career on the right track.

Earlier in the season the Manchester City manager had to discipline the defender for missing training after he slept in. Dunne also fell foul of the former City manager Joe Royle and Everton's Walter Smith for the same reason.

Dunne has set his sights on next summer's World Cup finals and Keegan believes that working toward that goal could help confirm the 22-year-old's potential.

The former England coach's remarks came after he witnessed City's 1-0 win over Wolves on Tuesday night, a game which sent the Maine Road club into second spot on the table – the first time they have occupied an automatic promotion place since August.

Keegan is a manager who rarely makes an effort to applaud quality defending but he singled out Dunne for well-earned praise after the Dublin-born player's tackle on Mohammed Camara in the box which secured victory as much as Kevin Horlock's early goal.

"Richard Dunne was excellent," said Keegan. When he turns up he's pretty good. He's 22 and has an awful lot going for him. There's nobody better in this division than him. He can be frustrating; he has this habit of sleeping in as people know – you sometimes wonder and feel like giving up on him.

"But he's got so much going for him that you have to live with that a bit. He has to get more professional and he knows that. His performances currently are very good. That tackle he made late on won us the points, no question."

Now Keegan wants Dunne, who has been sidelined by the Republic of Ireland in recent matches, to continue his progress by forcing his way back into the side.

"He's not in the current Irish team, so there's a lot of incentive for him to keep performing well," Keegan said.

"He'll certainly be in the squad and he will play a lot of games for his country because he's so young still – but with the World Cup finals coming up he will surely want to be in their starting line-up.

"He's played right-back for me this season, which is not his best position – and yet he'd managed to soldier on there. He's now got himself back into the centre of defence, and that's where he will stay if he keeps playing like he is at the moment."

City have won seven of their last 10 league games and forced themselves to within four points of surprise leaders Burnley. But Keegan still worries about what is becoming a dogfight for promotion among a dozen teams.

"Looking at the league table tells me what I already know," he said. "There is not one outstanding team in it.

"There are a lot of teams who would like to be in the Premiership and a lot of players who can be as good as anybody but lack consistency. That's what this division is at the moment; there's certainly no Fulham in it this season.

"There are one or two teams who you know that if they get a run together are capable of not only getting out of this division but staying in the one above. We are one of those teams."

He added: "Another one would be Wolves. We might well have seen the two teams here which will get automatic promotion.

"We average 33,000 people every week, and they average nearly 23,000 – so that tells you that we are, supporter wise, the two biggest clubs.

"That alone will not get either of us up, however, only winning will of course, but if we get up it will help keep us there because it will give us much bigger resources than some of the others.

"Both [the Wolves manager] Dave Jones and I and all the players from both clubs have got a lot of hard work to do before we start thinking about the Premiership. I still think we are a way off."