Mick McCarthy's call to Wolves hitmen
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has challenged his three strikers to establish their own pecking order in the battle for places at Everton on Saturday.
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has challenged his three strikers to establish their own pecking order in the battle for places at Everton on Saturday.
Kevin Doyle, unavailable because of injury for the opening game, will be fit for the trip to Goodison while Steven Fletcher is also expected to recover from a foot injury suffered in the win over Stoke.
With Sylvan Ebanks-Blake impressing McCarthy both in pre-season and on Saturday, it is not automatic his two most expensive signings will be paired together against Everton.
And that suits the Wolves boss fine as he set the scene for a training ground tussle for starting places this week.
He said: "Doyle and Fletcher should both be available and Sylvan played very well on Saturday and has had a great pre-season.
"Who plays? I go back to the start of the season last year. There were eight changes to the side that finished the season. There may well be a preferred pecking order at some stage but that only changes from players and their performance.
"I expect the same desire from everyone. I want them to push each other, whether they're wingers, goalkeepers, strikers, defenders, full-backs.
"I want the ones out the team to be pushing those in the team."
But McCarthy was full of praise for Fletcher's opening performance, crowned as it was by what proved to be the decisive goal.
The manager said: "The transfer fee never bothered him. He's so unaffected by it all. He's come in, trained, got on with everybody and looked every bit what he is in pre-season.
"He's been excellent and of course it's important for strikers to score early goals.
"Whether he sets a target I don't know - I just want him to score as many as he can. I used to turn up every pre-season to play 40 games and play the best I could to get into the PFA team of the year.
"I got in seven times in the fourth, third, second division but never the top flight - mind you I was up against Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen, Gordon McQueen, Steve Bould and Tony Adams, so I was nowhere near that!
"But it was a great start for Fletcher. He said to me that it was an easy goal to score but I told him he did well to get to the ball - I know players who wouldn't have been near that and I said that to him.
"He showed great desire."
