Sleepless nights the stuff of dreams for Sam Ricketts
Wolves captain Sam Ricketts unveiled next season's kit by admitting he's so excited about the Championship he's having sleepless nights.
Ricketts will lead the team wearing the club's new Puma home strip - which includes black sleeves for the first time since the late 1990s – for the final game of the season against Carlisle on Saturday before lifting the League One trophy at the end of the game.
Kenny Jackett's champions need to win to set a new points record for the third tier.
Carlisle's survival chances are out of their hands after last night's 0-0 draw at Crawley.
They must win, hope Preston defeat Crewe away and hope Tranmere lose at home to Bradford all with a combined four-goal swing in the Cumbrians' favour for them to stay up.
But Ricketts is already looking forward to next campaign.
"I couldn't sleep last night because I'm thinking about next season already," he said.
"We want to push on and keep getting better and better.
"It's through excitement and how great this season has been."
Ricketts and team-mates Carl Ikeme and Danny Batth modelled the new kit against a stunning backdrop of graffiti art in a special pop-up gallery in the Stan Cullis Stand with the theme of the banner on the stand balcony 'This is our love and it knows no division'.
And the skipper revealed his pride at re-connecting the bond between players and fans.
"We've wanted to achieve our goal – promotion - but hopefully we've made the fans proud of the team," he said.
"They've supported us superbly right from the first game of the season, and that drives me on to be better next season.
"That's the biggest thing that gets spoken about – promotion is huge and the ultimate goal, but it's massively important everyone at the club feels connected again.
"And when a club like this gains momentum and gets on a roll it's like a juggernaut. It takes some stopping."
The kit, which went on sale today to season ticket holders and members from 9am to 9pm, will be worn for the first time on Saturday in front of a second successive sell-out Molineux crowd of 30,000.
And Ricketts revealed how much the support means.
"It's amazing - that just shows the magnitude of the club," he said.
"It's a two-way thing – we need them probably more than they need us.
"They really have carried us at certain times this season."
Wolves beat Rotherham 6-4 in their last home game but Ricketts wants to sign off with a 25th clean sheet, which would be Carl Ikeme's 22nd, matching Mark Kendall's 1987-88 post-War club record in the league.
"Carl Ikeme is keeping track of that record and he deserves it the way he's played this season," he said.
"So we'll keep the six but not the four!"
