Benik Afobe was a long time coming at Wolves

The 22-year-old has had a stunning impact since his arrival from Arsenal in January, scoring 12 goals in 19 games, while Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling says Afobe's £2million price tag is "daylight robbery."

Afobe is the highest goalscorer in the country on 31 goals, with 19 of them coming on loan at MK Dons earlier in the season.

Head coach Jackett believes Afobe has added a new dimension to Wolves' play. And he now admits he would have signed the youngster earlier if he could.

But he thought the striker needed to prove himself again after a serious knee injury at Millwall and an unconvincing loan spell last spring at Sheffield Wednesday, where he netted twice in 12 games, of which only four games were starts.

"Would we have liked to have taken him earlier? Could we have taken him last summer? Well, yes. Of course we'd have loved to," said Jackett.

"But he suffered quite a bad injury, and then he went to Sheffield Wednesday and didn't really tear up any trees there.

"So I think for him, getting over his injury in the first part of the season was something he needed to do.

"At MK Dons his impact was quite a big one and a lot of it coming off the bench. The progression's been good.

"He was sub quite a lot and scored a lot of his goals from the substitutes' bench. In the second half of the season he was ready to come on and play."

Afobe has had a major impact on Wolves since his arrival with the team winning nine and drawing five of his 19 outings.

And Jackett has urged his side to return to winning ways with back-to-back victories to end the season against Wigan and Millwall on a high to try to keep their play-off hopes alive.

"In terms of the season overall, we have to make sure we finish strong in these two games and keep the pressure on the sides above us," said the boss.

"It won't necessarily be easy for them playing in those games. If we can get two wins out of two we can definitely keep the pressure on Ipswich.

"I think it's different and it's not necessarily easy. It's in their hands but things can change.

"As we know, in this division it's easy to have a good performance and get a draw or play quite well and win.

"Or you can be slightly off it and, for one reason or another, don't suddenly pick up any points.

"That can happen on the day and we have to make sure we pick up our end of the bargain and win our games.

"For us and for me I just don't want a flat performance on Saturday, I'd be very disappointed if I get that from my players.

"There must be a real determination to go right to the end."

Jackett is looking forward to Saturday's trip to Wigan which he believes will be an open game after admitting Wolves weren't cute enough to cause a dogged Ipswich side enough problems in Saturday's 1-1 draw.

"Saturday's match will be a different type of game and we have to adapt to that, make sure we put a performance on and get the right result," he said.

"The Ipswich match was a very tight game. Ipswich can get a lock on you and it's hard to get away.

"They're good defensively. It was very hard for us to break them down. I think they had very few chances apart from their goal.

"Their two centre-halves were very good - even showing at times good pace, good reading of the game and good strength, and we couldn't out-run them."