Wolves’ golden boy Kevin Doyle returns to Reading admitting his time there made his career.

Thirteen months on from his record-breaking £6.5million move to Molineux, the Republic of Ireland international returns to the Madejski Stadium tonight for the first time in typically modest mood.

Despite scoring 55 goals in 154 League games in four years, and in doing so helping his former club to an outrageous profit, the 26-year-old still seems to be fretting about the reception he will receive.

But a host of accolades from his time in Berkshire, including being voted the club’s and Championship’s Player of the Year in their record title-winning season in 2005-06, regular top scorer and, intriguingly, scorer of the most headers in all four divisions for the year 2007, mean he will enjoy status akin to Steve Bull being presented onto the Molineux pitch when he trots out.

He said: “Hopefully it will be a good reception. I had an enjoyable and successful four years at Reading and certainly more highs than lows. We got relegated but overall it was an excellent time for me.

“We were promoted to the Premier League and finished eighth in the top flight. It made me as a footballer and gave me memories I’ll never forget.

“I loved every minute of it and I loved living in the area as well. It will be my first time back at Reading.

“There are still a couple of lads that I know well there along with the manager and all the staff.

“There’s some excitement about going back but I hope people understand why I left. I tried my best to help the club back into the Premier League but it didn’t happen. It was for football reasons I had to leave and I hope everyone understood that.

“They’ve got a good chance of getting up this season. They’ve got a great stadium, training ground and infrastructure and I’d enjoy it if they got promoted.

“I think the club were happy for me to go as well to help balance the books and it was all very amicable. They got a good fee for me and I think we got the best out of each other.

“I had four great years, scored a lot of goals and had plenty of good times.”

For the Wolves striker, tonight also gives him chance to meet up with the man who effectively discovered him in Ireland playing for Cork City – Reading boss Brian McDermott.

Doyle said: “Brian was the chief scout when I was there and he was the one who scouted me in Ireland with the director of football Nicky Hammond.

“They both watched me before manager Steve Coppell came over to have a look.

“It will be good to see Brian again, he was at my wedding during the summer and I get on very well with him.

“Brian has done a good job as manager, he had the reserves for a time and had success with them too.

“He knows everything there is to know about football so it’s no surprise to see how he’s done, but at the same time it’s always a difficult job. He’s a man everyone at the club knew and he knew how the club worked and he nearly got them to the play-offs in the end.

“They’ll give us a good test. They’ll be a week ahead of us in training because of when their league starts and will be fit and raring to go.

“It will be a good game and hopefully an enjoyable one.”

Doyle’s relief at scoring could be felt at the weekend, after his opener against Charleroi meant all four of Wolves’ main strikers had found the net in pre-season.

He said: “To get a goal was nice even if it was a friendly.

“It’s not massively important in pre-season and doesn’t bother me too much, but it’s always good to get off the mark.”

Doyle is just relieved to see the emphasis of the pre-season workload shift from training to matches.

He said: “Pre-season has been hard work, it’s tough but it’s enjoyable and I’m starting to feel sharper for it.

“The workload of running is now easing off a little bit as we look more towards the games. We had a good trip to Belgium, the same to Ireland and it’s been an enjoyable pre-season.

“I haven’t missed a day so far and have been niggle-free, which is nice because I didn’t really feature all last pre-season due to the hernia problem I had.

“It will be great to get a good one under my belt if I can and then show that on the pitch when the season starts.”