Michael Kightly reckons Wolves can ‘wing it’ tonight and beat promotion rivals Reading – convinced he and the team have their ‘zip’ back.

Kightly is relishing the Madejski Stadium showdown as much as anyone, as he looks for the Molineux wide men to give a better account of themselves in the Championship summit.

The last time the sides met, Reading romped to a 3-0 win at Molineux in September to end Wolves’ seven-match winning run and eight-game unbeaten start.

But Kightly has just as painful personal memories, after he and fellow winger Matt Jarvis were forced off with hamstring injuries – the latter’s serious enough to keep him out of action for 11 games.

The England under-21 international said: “You want to play well against the big sides and last time I came off after about 25 minutes. Luckily my injury wasn’t too serious but Jarvo did his hamstring really badly and it was a big loss for us to lose him for that amount of time.

“Hopefully we’ll both play 90 minutes now and play well, because we want to turn it around this time. It’s vital for us to show what we’re about. We need to get a hold on the game and come out with either a win or a draw.

“If we do that, we’ll be happy.”

Reading have piled on the agony to their “victims” at the Madejski Stadium this season. With 36 goals scored, eight conceded and having dropped just seven points out of 42, they boast the league’s best home record, most goals scored and equal best defensive record.

Steve Coppell’s side are likely to fly out of the traps but Kightly believes that may play straight into Wolves’ hands – because of the pace in their ranks.

He said: “I think it might suit us playing away, because they’ve got to come at us. If teams come out and try to break us down, sometimes that suits us because we can hit them on the break. Hopefully we can put in a good performance like we did at Bristol City.”

Wolves’ widemen have certainly been back in the groove in the last few games to go hand-in-hand with an improvement in team performances, even if results haven’t always gone the way of Mick McCarthy’s side.

Kightly set up four goals in a row – two each against Brimingham in the FA Cup then Bristol City – while Jarvis scored against Blackpool and the Robins.

The former Grays wide man said: “I think the Preston game gave everyone a bit of a kick up the bum and we performed brilliantly against Bimingham and Bristol City for most of the game.

“We look as if we’ve got our zip back. I just want that to carry on now.”

On the flip side, defensive errors have led to several recent late goals, costing Wolves the chance to put more daylight between themselves and the chasing pack.

Wolves have taken the lead in each of their last four league games but failed to win any of them. Kightly – himself guilty of a misplaced pass that led to Bristol City’s first goal 10 days ago – admitted they must tighten up.

He said: “For whatever reason, we’ve leaked a couple of goals late on and I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault personally. Maybe as a team we’re not shutting up shop enough and we’ll try our best to do that if we take the lead tonight and hopefully we can see it out.

“If we don’t concede any sloppy goals, we can definitely win.”

Kightly insists the players spared 90 minutes in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup have benefited from the rest and believes the Cup win at Blues helped restore confidence.

He joined Kevin Foley, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Andy Keogh who were rested on Saturday, while Richard Stearman (suspended) and Stephen Ward (injured) missed out and new loan signing Nigel Quashie is now eligible to make his Wolves debut.

Kightly said: “The gaffer left a few players out with an eye on Reading and, if a few who were left out are selected, they’ll be nice and fresh.

“People were saying we were having a bit of a wobble and I think we showed everyone with a few boys being rested (at Blues), we can still beat the top sides with the team we played, which was a massive result.”

Victory for Wolves would extend their lead to eight points, while defeat would slash it to two. But Kightly, who celebrated his 23rd birthday on Saturday, insists the Wolves players are completely focused on getting three points, regardless of any psychological edge to the winners.

He said: “We’re just going there to win and we think we can. If we’re on our mettle and playing well, we can beat anyone. That’s why we’re top of the league.

“We’re going to do what we’ve been doing all season and hopefully come out on top.  It’s massive and three points are vital to both teams.”