Wolves will walk into a white hot atmosphere at Goodison Park after Everton’s opening day setback at Blackburn.

But striker Kevin Doyle believes it is experience, and not adrenalin, which will be the key to his team-mates coping tomorrow.

Powered by the momentum of their defeat of Stoke, Wolves are full of beans as they provide the opposition for Goodison’s first game of the new campaign – a stadium which remains a favourite for Premier League players up and down the country.

Doyle is among them, relishing the crowd remaining tight to the pitch and noise generated by as passionate a group of fans as English football provides.

But as the Republic of Ireland striker and Wolves’ Player of the Season prepares to take his bow, he believes it is an occasion ready-made for his team to prove they have learned from their debut campaign.

He said: “In the second season you cannot rely on the adrenalin of playing in the Premier League giving you an edge any more.

“We won’t be playing in these stadiums for the first time or playing against these players for the first time. Now our experience is important. This game at Everton is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

“It’s a fantastic stadium to go to play in, the sort of place I love. The crowd is right on top of the pitch and the atmosphere is fantastic. It’s not your normal new stadium which we see more and more of.

“But we’ve had that experience of handling it now. We did well there last season. We should have that bit of belief that experience gives you. We’ve got through that first season in this division and now we have to make that count.

“I don’t like to keep harking back to Reading but it is a good comparison. We opened our second season by drawing at Manchester United and then beating Everton at home. We were so confident and thought we had arrived as a Premier League team.

“But we probably got complacent. We were mid-table by Christmas and then relegated by May. Hopefully, that complacency won’t set in here.

“To be honest, I can’t imagine a manager such as Mick McCarthy allowing it to.”

Everton, though, do admit they were jolted by their sluggish start at Blackburn and have spent the week steeling themselves to take out their frustrations on Wolves.

When McCarthy’s side earned a confidence-boosting point in the same fixture early last season, Everton were fighting their way through a shortage of numbers because of injuries.

That doesn’t apply this time around and midfielder and dangerman Tim Cahill acknowledges they have to respond quickly and successfully to the Ewood defeat.

Cahill said: “I am looking forward to the game because it is the start of our season at Goodison Park. We lost the last game at Blackburn so it is very important we get three points.

“We have big plans for this season and we want to go back to the top of the table. This year we need to not lose at home and get more wins away.

“We need to start by beating Wolves.”

It’s the likes of Wolves that cost Everton a European place last season – according to their captain Phil Neville.

He said: “You look back at last season and wonder why we didn’t qualify for Europe, and it’s because we couldn’t beat teams like Wolves. They were dropped points.

“Last week was probably a kick up the backside for us – we must make it count now.”

With none of last season’s injury woes to concern him, Everton boss David Moyes can certainly mix it up if he wants to with England prospect Jack Rodwell and summer signing Jermaine Beckford among those starting on the bench last week.

The feeling is Moyes will not abandon faith just yet in the starting line-up he chose for the first game.

But Wolves boss McCarthy is expected to make changes, either enforced or otherwise.

Having been confident of their prospects of playing earlier in the week, McCarthy yesterday suggested he was now not so sure Jelle Van Damme and Steven Fletcher would be available – although the striker was due to press his case in training today.

George Elokobi is the obvious replacement for van Damme if the Belgian international does not recover from an ankle twist while Doyle, of course, is expected to come in regardless of Fletcher’s availibility.

By Martin Swain