F-Factor gives reunion extra spice

Saturday, October 18, 2008, at Molineux just got a little more interesting.

Fitness permitting, Freddy Eastwood will return to Wolves and, no matter how much he and his old club will doubtless insist otherwise, pass judgement on one of Mick McCarthy’s most contentious decisions of the last year.

The 24-year-old striker is finally out of McCarthy’s hair, a Coventry player for £1.2m which is no bad price for Wolves when you consider the huge backward step his £1.5m move to Molineux became.

Eastwood’s star burned fiercely but all too briefly before he became the most talked-about substitute in recent Molineux history, a running sore in a season which wounded McCarthy’s reputation among many Wolves fans.

Rarely can a player who did so little cause so much trouble and the October meeting of the two clubs for their first derby gives him the chance to cause McCarthy embarrassment. Eastwood has left with a swagger in his comments which he was never able to show in his club football – after August at any rate – still maintaining his claim that “if I’d played every week I’d have been one of the top goalscorers in the Championship.”

He said: “I know Ebanks-Blake came in late and scored 12 goals but if I’d been playing all season I know I would have scored more, I would have been top scorer.

“When I play I score goals, I don’t score in every game but my record over the years has been one every other game. It proves to me and everyone who’s watching that if I’m enjoying my game, I’ll score goals.”

And without mentioning McCarthy by name, his follow-up suggested that his Wolves manager will regret not offering a little more faith and belief in Eastwood’s abilities. He added: “The main place I scored goals was Southend but I went three, four, five games without scoring sometimes though.

“But the manager knew that it was only a matter of time before I laid one on a plate for someone or scored a hat-trick myself.

“The manager here knows me from those days. He’s been following my progress. He’s put his confidence in me. Even if I have a couple of bad games, I think the manager will believe in my ability just as the manager at Southend did.”

How much all of this will matter to McCarthy and Wolves by October will very much depend on their start. If Wolves are up and running, it will be a mere side-dish. But having missed the play- offs by one goal and been criticised for too many sterile performances last season, the Eastwood Factor will be the main course on that October afternoon if his old club have started slowly.