He has yet to score at home and he hasn't even started any of our Barclays Premier League games. Yet Marlon Harewood has achieved cult status in his debut season at Villa Park.

Although life has been far from easy for the 28-year-old striker since his £3.5m transfer from West Ham last summer, he is now firmly established as a fans' favourite.

Each time he makes an appearances, he is serenaded by supporters singing "Feed the Hare and he will score" - and he is starting to make those words ring true.

On the surface, four goals may not sound much, but it's not bad for a player who has actually only started two games all season, both of them in the Carling Cup. It was at Wrexham in the second round that he scored on his full debut last August and he followed up with the 100th league goal of his career in the 4-0 victory at Blackburn in November.

More recently there have been crucial - not to mention top quality - strikes in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool and the 2-1 success at Reading. There was nearly another one at Arsenal, too, until his powerful shot hit goalkeeper Manuel Almunia's legs.

Having made such an impact as a substitute, Marlon could be forgiven for feeling he is worth a permanent place but that's far from the case. "I'm happy to be getting the odd appearance on the pitch and scoring a few goals to help the lads out," he says.

"Obviously it's frustrating that I haven't been involved more often, but I keep myself fit, ready for when the gaffer decides to pick me. I want to play but the lads have been doing so well. I'm not a person to moan because if the team are doing well the whole squad are doing well.

"When that's the case, there's no point in changing anything although I hope to get a couple of starts before the end of the season and prove myself good enough to stay in there."

He could, of course, have been virtually guaranteed regular football by joining Wigan Athletic rather than Villa. But just when his proposed move to the JJB Stadium looked set to go ahead, a call from Villa boss Martin O'Neill changed everything.

"I haven't really thought about how things might have turned out at Wigan," he admits. "Just having Martin ringing me persuaded me that this was the place to be.

"So many people speak so highly of him and he's one of the top managers in the game so I could give up the chance to work underneath a man like that.

"I have no regrets at all. The lads are doing really well and we are looking for higher things."

There's a common denominator to his quartet of goals. All four have been netted in away matches, and all four have been right in front of the claret and blue army. Not that Marlon was aware of that until it was drawn to attention.

Once on the pitch, he is too focussed on his game to think about his surroundings. "I don't really take notice of things like that," he says. "But the fans have been fantastic and it's always good to see them celebrating when you score. That's what I'm paid to do."

He's not a player to concern himself with the aesthetic quality of his strikes, either. His goal at Reading was a classic as he curled an angled shot beyond goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemman and into the far corner.

Harewood's verdict? "It went in, that's the satisfaction for me," he insists. "It was a nice goal to score, to be fair, although Ashley Young deserves a lot of the credit because he put the ball on a 50 pence piece for me. But I never really worry about the method of scoring. All that matters is that they go in the net. I'm always looking forward to scoring my next goal."

If the masterstroke at the Madejski was the pick of Marlon's Villa goals so far, he doesn't rate it as the most important. That honour goes to his first Premier League strike, the one which convinced him he could do the business in English football's top flight. Villa fans should remember it well - he went on to complete a hat-trick as the Hammers thrashed us 4-0 at Upton Park in September 2005.

He also scored twice at Villa Park that season, once as the Hammers beat us 2-1 in the return league match and then the winner against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup semi-final. One of those goals brought a muted response from Villa fans, the other was only of passing interest in these parts.

Just imagine the reception when he scores his first Villa goal on home soil.