Wolves’ long throw merchant Greg Halford has raised the stakes for Saturday’s clash by insisting he can beat Stoke’s own set-piece ‘missile launcher’ Rory Delap at his own game.

A charity contest to decide the longest throw between the pair was recently scrapped.

But Halford – who is one of only three ever-presents with keeper Wayne Hennessey and captain Karl Henry this season – believes he can hurl the ball further than Delap, who was also signed by Wolves boss Mick McCarthy for Sunderland in January 2006.

The Wolves utility player said: “We will find out if I can throw it further than Rory hopefully on Saturday, but there were plans for a charity throw-off.

“I am reasonably confident, because we measured it once when I was at Reading and it went further than the world record, so we will have to see. I have always had the long throw, ever since I started playing.

“All the teams I have played for have scored lots of goals from it and hopefully it will be the same for Wolves.

“At Sheffield United, there were other players with a long throw, Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker, so I could go in the box. Here at Wolves we have George Elokobi, so that gives me a big chance to get in there and use my height.

“I love attacking, I love scoring goals and creating goals.”

Halford is inspired by the response from the Wolves crowd when he winds up for his long throws, so is keen to add to the assist he provided Kevin Doyle with for his first Wolves goal against Fulham in the 2-1 win on September 20.

He said: “It is great to hear the crowd getting going when I get the ball and I have not really had that anywhere else I have been, so it’s all good.

“But it’s also important to have some variety. Sometimes they might be expecting the long throw, then we can take it short and put a cross in, which almost caught Sunderland out a couple of times.

“It worked a treat with the goal we scored against Fulham and hopefully it will get us a few more.”

But while happy with his throw, Halford is less than satisfied with his performances, despite his ever-present record, albeit his last appearance against Villa came from the bench last Saturday.

The former Colchester junior has turned out at wide right, left midfield and right-back over the season so far.

He said: “My play in midfield has not been up to standard but playing as a right-back, I have been comfortable. A lot of people doubted me at right-back, but hopefully I have proved that I can play in this league as a defender.

“Overall, I am very happy at Wolves, I have settled in really well.”

Halford is actually far more convinced about Wolves’ chances of staying up than of his own performances.

He said: “We will survive. There are definitely three teams worse than us. Everyone here is confident we will stay up.

“I am one of the lads who has played at this level, so I was aware what we would be facing. There have been few surprises for me and the other lads have adapted really well.

“Performance-wise, it has been good apart from the Blackburn game and we deserve more points.”