McCarthy praise for ‘outstanding’ Doyle

MICK McCARTHY has hailed the impact of Wolves record signing Kevin Doyle ahead of the vital Premier League relegation clash at Hull.

McCarthy believes the Republic of Ireland international produced one of the best displays ever seen by a Wolves centre-forward at Molineux during Tuesday’s goalless draw with Liverpool when he played as the sole striker in a 4-5-1 formation.

Doyle made the £6.5 million (€7.5m) switch from Reading in the summer and has produced performances of a consistently high standard and also weighed in with five of Wolves’ paltry tally of 17 top flight goals in 22 matches.

McCarthy said: “If anyone has seen a better centre-forward display at Molineux than against Liverpool, then I would like to see it.

“That was a classic performance from Kevin Doyle. He was outstanding. If he had scored to top it off, it would have been a 10 plus rating out of 10 performance.

“He is a terrific player and, whatever we paid for him, he is worth every single penny. Kevin Doyle took to the one striker role excellently but I had spoken to him about that role when he came. He is more than comfortable with that. I think he enjoyed it. He looked like he did.”

McCarthy knows the importance of not losing against Phil Brown’s side.

He said: “It is alright saying we want to win. We don’t want to lose, that’s for sure. We won’t be going to Hull and being gung-ho.”

McCarthy has been widely linked with a move for Hull midfielder Stephen Hunt and is expected to step up his attempts to sign him before the transfer window closes.

But he does not believe the speculation surrounding Hunt will affect the performance level of the ex Reading player when he faces his prospective future employers.

McCarthy said: “I can’t say I know Stephen Hunt that well but watching him play, I’ll don’t think he’ll be bothered by all that has been said. He had all that stuff with Petr Cech when he got injured and then went back and played and scored at Chelsea for Hull.

“Am I optimistic he will be a player at Wolves next week? I’ve never said that I’ve bid for him. I never have and I’m not aware that Jez Moxey (chief executive) has ever said that.

“I think we’ve said we’ve put multi-million bids in for people and people have made the assumption it is for Stephen Hunt but, as you know, assumption is the mother of all cock-ups.”