Nouha Dicko on his way back to Wolves full fitness

The Malian striker, who was sidelined for more than a year by a serious knee injury, has been in and out of the side since returning to the first-team fold at the beginning of October.

But he saw his most action of the season to date when he lasted 76 minutes of last Thursday's 2-1 triumph over Queens Park Rangers – and now he has set his sights on his first goal.

He said: "It was important for me to move on to the next stage and feel I am past the rehab and against QPR I felt I contributed to help the team to get the win.

"I needed a game like that when you have to work hard for the team, and keep going even when you are tired, to keep on going.

"I felt a bit like the old Nouha and hopefully, game after game, I will feel even better. I felt good and I know what I need to do to get back to my best.

"It is not going to be easy and I have to work hard but it will be worth it. I just want a goal now – the goal will come!

"We have some really good players and maybe if I was in a different position at times the goal would have come at QPR."

That victory snapped a run of nine winless games – during which Walter Zenga was axed and replaced by Paul Lambert. And Dicko believes Wolves can now begin to climb back to where they feel they should be in the Championship.

"We are not in the position we want to be and know we have to keep working hard to improve," he added. "You don't just have to be good players to get wins – you have to be a team and be confident as a team.

"There is no reason why we can't go on a run now.

"We have good players and have the potential to do well but we all know the Championship is about consistency.

"We now need to get the wins if we want to reach our goals. There is a long way to go and if we show the right mentality we can keep dreaming and show the season is not over."