Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has revealed the inspiration for new strike-force Sam Vokes and Andy Keogh – Marlon Harewood.

Vokes and Keogh played together for the first time in the Championship in the Good Friday 3-0 win over Southampton when Vokes broke the deadlock after just 39 seconds for his eighth goal of the season.

The pair were expected to continue to lead the line in today’s East versus West Midlands clash at Pride Park as Wolves took their promotion challenge to Derby today.

And boss McCarthy reckons the presence of on-loan Villa forward Harewood has already had a positive effect.

“Maybe just having him around has inspired Keogh and Sam because I thought they were different class on Friday,” said the boss.

“Marlon has had very little football. He had 90 minutes last Monday in a really tough game against Birmingham and I wanted fresh legs.

“I wanted more of an impact – if Marlon had gone on and started to struggle after 50-60 minutes then we’d have lost that impact. Marlon is fine.”

Harewood played 15 games for Villa this season but most were as a substitute and before Christmas, and despite starting in the 2-0 defeat against Birmingham seven days ago and playing half an hour on Friday, the 29-year-old has looked ring-rusty.

Instead, Vokes and Keogh took centre stage on Friday with 40-goal strikeforce Chris Iwelumo and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake injured.