Wolves can cope with Emile Heskey

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today tipped his defensive duo to cope with a rejuvenated Emile Heskey as he backed his strikeforce to gun down Villa.

Heskey rolled back the years to make it a winning start for new manager Gerard Houllier as Villa came from behind to beat Blackburn Rovers 3-1 on Wednesday night in the Carling Cup.

McCarthy watched the game and said Heskey transformed the tie by scoring one and making another as he reminded his old Liverpool boss of his best form.

McCarthy said: "Emile came on and they got back to 1-1 and, before you knew it, it was 2-1 then 3-1.

"He came off the bench and was really brilliant for 25 minutes. He turned the game upside down and was different class."

McCarthy is expected to reunite Christophe Berra alongside Jody Craddock at the back after the Scot's suspension kept him out of last Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.

And he backed the pair to handle the former England forward.

"Jody and Berra have been terrific - they're two proper centre-halves," he said.

"These physical games don't bother them at all. They can handle that side of it and we've played well in all our Premier League games this season."

McCarthy's £13.5m strikeforce Steven Fletcher and Kevin Doyle have hardly spent any time on the pitch up front together this season.

But they showed what they could do when they scored three goals between them in extra-time to see off Notts County in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

And the Molineux chief admitted he is tempted to unleash them as a pairing after playing Fletcher wide left at White Hart Lane.

"When I bought them, I saw them as a good partnership, but Sylvan has been excellent in the games he's played," he said.

"But they're a handful. They haven't really played together but they're both good players individually and they looked very good on Tuesday and they were the difference.

"Doyle's performance at Spurs was terrific. He didn't score but he didn't have any chances. It was great for him to get some goals on Tuesday because that's what he's judged on."