Kevin Foley to start for the Republic

Wolves defender Kevin Foley will start his first competitive match for the Republic of Ireland when they take on Macedonia in Saturday's Euro 2012 qualifier.

Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni broke the news to the 26-year-old defender prior to today's training session in the Irish capital and Foley will now line-up alongside his club team-mate Kevin Doyle at Dublin's AVIVA Stadium.

Foley's three caps to date have all come in friendlies, but the right-back has got the nod ahead of Stephen Kelly to replace injured first-choice John O'Shea for Saturday's clash.

While Foley was readying himself for action today, Doyle was wrestling with the dilemma over whether he needs to be more of a 'fox in the box.'

The £6.5million striker has spoken with Wolves manager Mick McCarthy about striking the balance between graft and goals, after notching only six times in the Premier League this season.

His unselfish play as a lone striker often means he spends much of his time working outside of the penalty area and Doyle admits it's a concern.

He said: "I've spoken to the manager about getting the balance right between chasing stuff wide and being in the box.

"I enjoy going everywhere and being part of the build-up. I get bored a lot and I can't just stand with the centre-halves watching.

"I need to be more clever because playing one up front is a totally different style than playing with two."

The 29-year-old's worries have even led to doubts about his place in the team, with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake having matched his six-goal league tally from the substitutes' bench.

Doyle said: "I've had to play better elsewhere - in other areas of the pitch to try to keep in the team.

"I'm behind where I would like to be with goals, even though I've got more assists this time.

"When you're not scoring, you have to almost play better to keep yourself in the team.

"You can play bad but score a goal and everything you do afterwards turns to gold."

And Doyle believes it's vital he continues to hit the net in the run-in.

He said: "With eight games to go, it's more important than ever for me to be scoring goals now.

"If I can, I'd be delighted - I said at the start of the season I wanted to beat the nine I got last season.

"The Premier League is our bread and butter, that's where I want to score my goals ideally and where I'd like to have got more.

"All the teams we've got to play are in and around us so they're still going to be tough games, but we've given ourselves a great chance."

Amazingly, Wolves remain in the drop zone by two goals despite having taken eight points from four games and 11 from six.

Doyle admits the bar keeps raising in this craziest of Premier League seasons.

He said: "Last season 31 points would have kept you up, which just shows how unbelievable the league is.

"The run we've been on in the last six weeks should have got us out of trouble by a few points and it hasn't.

"We're still in the bottom three but we've got a good run-in and we're looking forward to it."

Wolves can boast 10 more goals and four more points than at the same stage last year although, bizarrely, they are two places worse off.

But Doyle insisted the team have turned on the style more this term.

He said: "Last year, we scrapped our way out of it. This season, we're playing our way out of it. We have more players attacking-wise than maybe we do defensively.

"We're four points better off than we were at the same stage last year but it just shows how the quality has increased. If everyone keeps up their current form, someone will be unlucky to go down.

"That said, whoever goes down will deserve to be relegated, but the relegated clubs will maybe look at other seasons and think they could be maybe be in mid-table."