Hunt hopeful of starting place

Following Tuesday night’s emphatic 5-0 demolition of a poor Northern Ireland side, Giovanni Trapattoni and his players were rightly pleased with themselves, having put in their most convincing performance in a long time to see off their Northern rivals thanks to goals from Stephen Ward, Robbie Keane (2), Simon Cox and a Craig Cathcart OG.

And it could have been a couple more, with Cox, Keane, Andy Keogh and Seamus Coleman each going close, Keith Andrews bending a fine early shot onto the post before Stephen Hunt’s stunning free kick at the death also hit the woodwork.

“I thought it was in all the way,” said Hunt after the game, however rather than disappointed not to have scored, the Wolves winger looked delighted just to be taking part.

“We want to play in every game but obviously the European Championships is the big one. I might get to play against Scotland on Sunday, that’s up to the manager,” said Hunt, who has finally showed the Molineux crowd what he could do since returning from injury about a month ago, culminating in a key late goal against Blackburn that all-but kept Wolves up before Birmingham’s late collapse cemented Mick McCarthy’s side’s position in next year’s Premier League.

“This is my best form for a while since probably Hull. The last three or four weeks I’ve been playing really well and I’ve stayed injury free. I got a little kick on Sunday and had a sore Achilles but I got back in the last couple of days and I’m playing again,” said Hunt. “I’m feeling pretty fresh [following a lengthy spell on the sidelines]. Obviously I wasn’t feeling too fresh tonight, two games after the final game of the season, and I struggled with the tempo a little bit. But happy days, five nil,” said Hunt.

“They obviously had a lot of players missing. It was important to get the early goal. They are our nearest rival so it is important that we beat them. Obviously not too many people came out to see us but tickets are over-priced and expensive and hopefully they will sort that out in the future and get more bodies in to support us because obviously the boys gave a decent performance tonight and it would be nice to have a bigger crowd.”