Wolves were today hoping for a treble boost with fingers crossed that Irish trio Kevin Foley, Stephen Hunt and Stephen Ward will be fit for tonight’s friendly at Walsall.

The three were given an extra week off after figuring in the four end-of-season internationals for their country.

But they have returned in fine shape and, with eight days’ hard training under their belts, manager Mick McCarthy is hoping to add them to the squad that opened their warm-up programme at Crewe on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat for the short trip to the Banks’s Stadium.

McCarthy is still without Ronald Zubar, Jamie O’Hara, Steven Fletcher, Adlene Guedioura and Dave Edwards.

But Foley, who signed a new, four-year contract last week, can’t wait to get started again and is looking for Wolves to improve on last season’s drama of ‘Survival Sunday’.

“I’m just really looking forward to the new season,” said the 26-year-old utility man.

“We were aware of ‘second season syndrome’ last time and it did prove tougher – as was shown by the fact we needed more points to survive.

“Hopefully this season we can establish ourselves again and improve on the last two years.

“If you look at a team like Stoke, they’ve established themselves very well.

“They’re a season ahead of us but if we can look at what they’ve done, that would be great.”

By TIM?NASH