Stubborn Darren Ward insists his transfer-list reprieve is just the start of his Wolves revival as he prepares for Carling Cup duty tonight.

Ward’s path to the first team has been re-opened by the injuries to Jody Craddock and George Elokobi’s which sees the 29-year-old set for his first start of the campaign against Rotherham in Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium.

But the defender’s refusal to give up on his Molineux career after being transfer- listed in the summer had already persuaded manager Mick McCarthy the Londoner was worth a second chance.

And Ward has made it clear that he intends to take it with a renewed training regime under-pinning fresh determination to make a success of his Wolves move.

“You ask anyone here and they will tell you – I’m quite stubborn,” says Ward. “I want to do well and I want to do it here and when I’m passionate about something I try to see it out.

“There are one or two things I didn’t work on in my own regime last season which I should have done which I have put right this season and I think there’s been a massive difference.

“It would have been easy to get my name out there and perhaps feel I was going to move. But to be honest I hardly even spoke to my agent. If you do well at a club like this it can only be good. Wherever I have been I just love playing football.”

Ward’s heart has gone out to Elokobi, who was awaiting the verdict from a scan on his knee injury today, but with an awkward tie against the in-form League Two pace-setters there is no time to dwell on sympathy.

“He’s such a nice bloke and we all wish him well in his recovery. But this is a big game because it would be nice to have a run in the cup,” said Ward.