SHOULD Marvin Elliott take out his considerable frustration on Wolverhampton Wanderers this afternoon, he will offer no apology for doing so.

Injured and forced to watch from the sidelines while his Bristol City teammates launched their Championship campaign in a manner which rendered talk of 'second season syndrome' nonsensical, the 24-year-old Londoner suffered agonies as he watched from the stands.

Having spent much of his week in the company of first team physio Nick Dawes and fitness coach Glenn Schmidt, it was hardly surprising that Elliott felt himself a peripheral figure on matchdays.

Required to guard against the impetuosity of youth, City manager Gary Johnson refused to rush the midfielder's reintroduction, preferring to wait until last season's young player of the year was properly ready and prepared.

That moment arrived during the half-time interval of last weekend's Ashton Gate meeting with Championship newcomers Doncaster. Johnson withdrew Bradley Orr, fearing he would be sent off after being shown a yellow card by Middlesex referee Jarnail Singh, re-deployed the adaptable Cole Skuse at right-back and issued Elliott with the instructions he had been longing to receive for weeks.

Reintroduced into his natural habitat in the midst of the midfield struggle, Elliott made an immediate impact, producing a lung-busting, tough-tackling display which utterly disrupted Doncaster and paved the way for City's biggest victory in two-and-a-half years.

With 45 minutes under his belt and no injury problems to speak of, the former Millwall player is now hungry to regain his place in the starting line-up. Although Skuse has done nothing wrong, it will come as no surprise to those City fans who witnessed his performance last weekend if Elliott is included in manager Johnson's XI to face the leaders at Molineux in today's 12.30 kick-off.

"I just want to get back in the side and play football as quickly as I can," revealed Elliott, who responds to media questions with the same no-nonsense approach which marks him out as arguably the outstanding player of his type in English football's second tier.

"I hated just sitting around and not being able to train with the boys. Having to watch matches from the stand was horrible. That's not something I'm really any good at.

"It's been so frustrating for me. First, there was a problem with my foot and then the knee injury happened and made sure I missed the start of the season.

"The boys have done well and the team has made a good start. But that doesn't help when you're not involved yourself."

Restored to health and match fitness, Elliott is now desperate to make up for lost time. And he is adamant he will make no concessions to injury.

"I'll be the same player as before. You won't see anything different. I play the way I play and that's that," he says.

"If I start thinking about injuries and pulling out of tackles, I'm more likely to be hurt than if I play my natural game. If I get back in, I'll be giving it 100 per cent and throwing myself into things. It's the only way I know."

He acknowledges the task of shifting either Skuse or Lee Johnson from the centre of City's midfield will be far from straightforward and concedes: "It's in the hands of the manager.

"It felt great to be back on the pitch last week and all I can do is hope I did enough in that 45 minutes to earn a start. But Cole has done a really good job and I'll understand if I have to wait."

A pumped up Elliott may well be required from the outset if Mick McCarthy's rampant Wolves are to be contained in their own Molineux backyard. Victorious in their last six outings and unbeaten since April 15, the Midlanders are blazing a trail at the top of the Championship.

A tally of 21 goals in seven matches represents the best in all four divisions and Elliott admits the prospect of trying to halt Wanderers' runaway train is a mouth-watering.

"These are the kind of games you want to be involved in," declared the Londoner. "We'll be right up for this one. Wolves are top of the league and flying high, but we haven't lost a game or let in a goal away from home.

"Nobody is talking about going there to get a draw. We go into every match wanting to win and it will be exactly the same at Wolves."