They are barely past the cubs' stage, but the young Wolves of Molineux are tearing opponents apart as they make the early running in the Championship promotion race.

Saturday's 5-1 thrashing of Nottingham Forest took Mick McCarthy's team - average age 23 - to the top of the table having scored 13 times in their first four games.

That's the highest goal tally in the country's top four divisions; but star winger Michael Kightly reckons there's far more to come from a rapidly maturing squad.

The 22 year-old England Under-21 international, who hit two of the goals that sunk Forest, says: "On our day we are as good as anyone in this League.

"When we perform like we did on Saturday we are near enough unplayable, but it's doing that week-in, week-out that has to be our aim.

"I know we can play even better. We've got a very young squad improving every time we play and we are very hungry to do well.

"We are so young it's embarrassing really. On Fridays (in training) we play Young 'Uns v Old 'Uns - and I'm nearly creeping into the Old 'Uns team!

"I'm 22 and that shouldn't be happening, but that's full credit to the manager for bringing in young, hungry players."

Young they may be but McCarthy's squad have their sights set high after hitting the ground running in the new campaign.

Kightly says: "We want to be in the Premier League, but that's easier said than done - especially when it comes to getting out of this League.

"Last year and the year before we were known for playing really well at home but perhaps losing or drawing when we should have won. That's so frustrating.

"Now we want to kill teams off. If we're not playing well then we need to dig in and win 1-0, but when we are playing well we need to beat teams convincingly.

"That's what we did on Saturday and we got a great result. We've made an excellent start, but it's still early days so we can't get carried away.

"We know the fans will be buzzing because we're top of the table, but we've got to look at the longer picture. If we're still top at the end of May, though, then it's happy days!"

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