A united wolves at Stoke

Kevin Doyle believes Wolves veteran goal hero Jody Craddock can play for at least another five years after hailing him as a “shining example” to all other players.

Central defender Craddock has looked on several occasions as if his days at Wolves were numbered.

He was set to join Stoke on a permanent basis after a loan spell two years ago before a injury crisis scuppered the deal and saw him return to Molineux.

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But Craddock has fought his way back into the team at the age of 34 and on Saturday his two goals – ironically against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium – enabled Mick McCarthy’s side to recover and earn a 2-2 draw.

Record signing Doyle is a massive fan of Craddock and feels he has a lot more to offer Wolves after they claimed a third successive draw.

The former Reading player said: “Jody is a shining example and with the way he leads his life. Since I came to the club in the summer I have seen it.

“He is in the gym every day, he trains hard, he is always getting massages. He is looking after himself and I think he has got plenty of years left in him.

“He is a fit man and your centre-halfs anyway seem to get a few extra years over centre-forwards and midfielders. There is no reason why he shouldn’t get another five, six, seven years.

“He has had injuries but, if you have had long injuries, you take that as a positive as you get older because it means you’ve rested a year or two along the way and there are less miles on the body clock.

“You savour then every moment you do get and you do look after your body to be able to play games like this.”

McCarthy echoed Doyle’s sentiments and said: “Jody is remarkable. He is more resilient than anyone else I know. He has nearly left a couple of times and never wanted to.

“He has come back in, lifted the trophy last season and he is a Premier League player this season so fair play to him.

“Jody is a leader for us. He is one of the elder statesman in the team. He is a fabulous professional and an example to all of the younger ones in the team.”

Craddock twice took advantage of pinpoint crosses into the box from Nenad Milijas who had been introduced as a half-time substitute by McCarthy.

But the Wolves boss is disappointed his side are struggling to chalk up victories despite the creditable share of the spoils with Everton, Aston Villa and Tony Pulis’s side in their last three games.

He said: “People say he have got three draws against decent teams – but we haven’t beaten any of them either and I’m disappointed.

“We should have beaten Everton, leading with three minutes to go and then conceding. Against Stoke, we got back to 2-2 and had three good breaks in the last five or six minutes.

“If we had got the ice cold water running through our veins instead of red hot blood pumping around, we might have been a bit more clinical and won the game.”

Pulis was disappointed with the way his side surrendered their two goal advantage given them by an own goal from George Elokobi and Matthew Etherington’s stunning volley.

But Stoke have still taken eight points from their last four games to cement a comfortable mid-table spot.

Pulis said: “It is going fantastic for us. We understand where we are. We are in one of the best leagues, if not the best league in the world.”

By John Curtis