Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today hailed Kevin Doyle’s man of the match performance against Liverpool as one of the best by a centre forward seen at Molineux.

Doyle led the line superbly on his own as McCarthy’s change of formation to 4-5-1 came off in the goalless draw.

“I’m not sure there can have been a better centre forward’s performance at Molineux than Doyle’s last night,” said the boss.

“I know Wolves fans will say there have been, but after playing up front on his own against one of the top sides like Liverpool, I’d like to see one.

“You can bring me all the tapes, get them from Cathay Pacific all the way back and eight tracks and cassettes, VHS – whatever you want – of everyone who’s played here.

“If there’s anyone who’s played better than that I’d like to see it.

“He didn’t get a goal but that would have made the all-round complete performance.

“He’s physically capable of playing that role and did very well.

“It was an absolute classic performance and he ran their two centre-backs ragged.”

McCarthy added: “He’s an inspiration. He was fabulous in an all round team performance.

“He worked tirelessly, stuck at it for us and caused them problems.

“There were some really good supporting performances though.

“I thought Karl Henry dominated the midfield and Jody Craddock was outstanding.”

In contrast to the plaudits for Doyle, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake was dropped from the entire 18 for the first time in his Molineux career.

But McCarthy was in no mood for anything to take the gloss from his record signing’s superb display.

And he remained tightlipped on whether he would play the same system at Hull on Saturday, when Wolves will attempt to end a run of 400 minutes without a Premier League goal.

But the Wolves chief believes last night’s point – watched by Hull boss Phil Brown – has given his rejuvenated side a platform for their crucial trip to the KC Stadium.

“I’d have settled for having this feeling of being encouraged by how we’ve done against Liverpool,” he said.

“We can look forward to the Hull game because of how well we played against Liverpool.”