Ebanks-Blake wants Wolves to be the best

Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake has urged his team-mates to prove they are the best team in the Championship.

And he says the best way to do that is to beat the team one place behind them in the table in tomorrow's derby clash with Birmingham at Molineux (ko 12.30pm)

Ebanks-Blake said ahead of the top-of-the-table clash: "If you want to be the best then you've got to beat the best."

The rivals are the runaway pace-setters in the Championship, Wolves having the better of the battle with a six point cushion on the second-placed Blues ahead of tomorrow's game.

For the Wolves supporters the derby clash could hardly have come at a better time with their side winning their last seven games, but 11-goal marskman Ebanks-Blake is adamant that it is just another game.

"The fact that it's a derby game is probably something that's more for the fans than the players," he said.

"For us it's another big Championship game and another three points up for grabs, just as it was at Sheffield United."

Goalkeeper Shane Higgs, signed on a month's loan from Cheltenham Town yesterday as cover, will be on the bench unless Carl Ikeme recovers from a gashed shin.

Chelsea and England central defender Michael Mancienne should return to the side after shaking off the virus which forced him out of the games against Blackpool and Sheffield United.

Wolves have not beaten the Blues in the last five meetings, and Ebanks-Blake knows that this is another Birmingham side littered with talent, not least frontman Kevin Phillips.