Wolves’ star striker Kevin Doyle has revealed a twin aim going into the West Midlands derby with Villa.

The £6.5million club record signing is determined to get some points on the board to ease survival worries, but would also love to get the better of Villa defender Richard Dunne by scoring his first goal against him.

Doyle has known Dunne for several years from their time with the Republic of Ireland national team, where they normally line up together.

At club level, they have locked horns with mixed fortunes – Doyle’s Reading beat Dunne’s Manchester City three times out of four in the Premier League.

Dunne’s last game for City before his £5million move to Villa last August happened to be his debut for Wolves, and the former came out on top in a 1-0 win, while honours were even in the 1-1 draw with Villa on October 24.

But Doyle, the younger man by four years at 26, has never scored against him and Wolves’ six-goal top scorer reckons it’s high time to put one past his mate.

He said: “I’ve played against Richard a good few times now and I can’t remember getting the better of him too many times. I get on with him fine and it’s always enjoyable against him and a fair contest, so I’m sure it will be fun.

“But I’m due to get the better of him at some stage and hopefully I will tomorrow though. We drew against them earlier on in the season and could – perhaps should – have had a penalty against him.

“I faced him for Wolves on my debut when I came on as a substitute at half time and he was playing his last game for City. I played OK but I don’t think I’ve ever scored against him, so hopefully that will change!

“At Reading we did well as a team against Manchester City – winning three out of four games against them in the Premier League – but I never scored.”

Having trained with him on countless occasions at international level and faced him on numerous for their clubs, Doyle doesn’t need reminding of Dunne’s qualities.

The Wolves striker said: “He’s pretty good in the air, he’s strong and he’s quicker than most people think when he gets into his stride, so he’s just a very good player.

“He’s been that way for Villa since he’s been there, and he always plays well for Ireland.”

Plenty of eyebrows were raised last summer when Villa, shorn of Martin Laursen through retirement and Curtis Davies through injury, had a huge hole to fill at the back.

They plugged it effectively with the acquisition of Dunne and James Collins and Doyle is not surprised the claret and blues now boast the best defensive record in the Premier League.

He said: “They were two good signings – they’re very good defensively and they’re very dangerous from set pieces as well. Dunne is excellent for Ireland at set pieces as well so he’s scored quite a few goals, as he has done for Villa so we’ll have to be on our guard.

“Villa have been in great form this season with getting to the League Cup final, the FA Cup semi-final and challenging for the Champions League and Dunne has been a massive part of that.”

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy would dearly have loved to have paired the Irishmen in the same team, after revealing before the Villa derby at Molineux of his enquiry about Dunne.

But instead, the Molineux boss had to settle for a recommendation to Villa counterpart Martin O’Neill.

McCarthy said: “It will be interesting. Dunne is fantastic. He’s a really top drawer centre-half. Martin O’Neill asked me about him, I said ‘what do you need to know about him other than sign him?’

“When I knew he was going, I rang him up to see if he would come to us but I was only ‘brassing my case’ because I knew we’d got no chance. He’d got bigger fish to fry, which is fair does.

“He’s a great lad. He made his debut for me for the Republic of Ireland in Amsterdam in 2000 against Van Nistelrooy et al, in a 2-2 draw and he’s been great. We were 2-0 up.

“But Doyle gave problems to Manchester United, Chelsea, and he will again.”

Villa are competing for a Champions League place with Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City.

Wolves have done the double over Spurs this season and Doyle believes the team must approach the same lungbursting levels of performance if they are to challenge their miserable record of 15 games and 30 years without a win over Villa.

He said: “We have to produce something similar to Tottenham. We drew against them at home and did well – we seem to do quite well against teams around those positions, such as Spurs.

“I’m sure we’ll play well – we need to play really well and providing they’re not at their very best, we can definitely get something out of the game.

“I think it will be a good, close game.”

Villa’s James Milner has been a revelation since his switch to central midfield and Doyle believes their opponents’ many strengths make it folly to concentrate on one player.

He said: “They have threats all over the pitch and they’re strong in every position.

“James Milner has been in great form, but attacking-wise, they’ve got Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor, John Carew and Stiliyan Petrov and defensively, they’re excellent, so that’s why they are where they are doing well in the cups and in the league.”

But Doyle insists Wolves aren’t worried about not imposing themselves on the illustrious hosts.

He said: “We do seem to have been able to impose ourselves on teams as well. I suppose the formation is set up to keep us in games and keep games tighter and make it more congested, so it’s harder for sides to break us down.

“That suits us more away from home to be like that, then we’ll get chances on the break or at set pieces to get up the field and try to nick something at the other end.”