Wolves’ record signing Kevin Doyle believes he was punished for being honest after losing his penalty claim against Villa.

Doyle was twice pulled down by Villa defender Richard Dunne in the third minute, but referee Peter Walton waved play on in the game that ended 1-1.

He said: “They say try to stay on your feet and if you’re fouled, you’re fouled, just because you try to stay on your feet shouldn’t mean you don’t get a penalty.

“If you go down too easily you get criticised, so I tried to stay up and he stopped me from scoring, but the ref was having none of it.

“I think it was a continuous sort of foul. I was trying to stay on my feet as much as possible and be honest and try to get a goal.

“But then, having not scored, then it should have been a penalty. I thought there was a pull, because he was holding onto me.”

Wolves have missed out on penalties against Wigan, Sunderland and Portsmouth already this season.

Thankfully the early decision against Villa didn’t count against Wolves, as they won a spot kick in the second half to level through Sylvan Ebanks-Blake after Michael Kightly was felled by Steve Sidwell.

Doyle said: “That was a long time coming because we’ve had a blatant penalty turned down in nearly every game.

“We don’t even get them in training now! It was about time and it was a great penalty by Sylvan.

“The ref probably went in at half-time and found out he should have given one to me at the start, so when we did look like we should have got one in the second half, he gave it straight away.

Doyle believes it’s harder for promoted teams to win penalties.

He said: “I think so. Steve Coppell used to say it when I was at Reading. You notice when you play bigger teams you’re against high profile teams and high profile managers, so they make it tough on referees in the back of their minds.

Doyle reckons Ebanks-Blake’s goal will be a huge relief for him.

The Republic of Ireland international said: “You could see he was delighted with it. I know the feeling, to get that off your shoulders, and it makes it a lot easier from now.”