Gary O’Neil insists Wolves can’t continue to perform so well and not pick up results this season.
Not for the first time this term, the Old Gold were impressive down in Brighton on Wednesday evening, but once again were this losing side, this time leading to their Carabao Cup exit. Goncalo Guedes and Tommy Doyle were on target in the defeat, which saw O’Neil’s side dominate the second period, and the head coach’s belief remains high that his group will be able to get over the line soon and earn a result they deserve.
On results not matching performances
“Of course, lots of positives. The main thing is always the result, of course it is, and we know the run of fixtures is brutal that we're in, and that we still face coming. We made a lot of changes, and the team still functioned well. We made some errors without the ball first half that gave Brighton a little bit too much joy. Once we managed to get that tidied up with the players, and they were able to follow the plan much better, we were better side, which takes some doing here. We should have won that second half, no problem.
“Of course, that’s not going to help us, but moving forward, and you can feel it from the fans at the end, they can still see that there's a lot going. We’re giving ourselves opportunities to win football matches against tough teams, and unfortunately, at this moment, we haven't managed to turn one our way.
“The lads still take a lot of heart from how well we were able to do on the road, at a tough place, against a side that hasn’t lost yet this season. You see the changes that they made and see how strong they are. Gutted to lose again and gutted that the lads gave themselves such a fantastic opportunity of getting a big result on the board for us today, and just that last little bit let us down and the sucker punch at 3-1 obviously made it very difficult.”
On playing staking a claim
“I thought Guedes was excellent. He’s obviously had a tough few years with injuries and being unsettled at the club. He showed quality, he was bright, he worked unbelievably hard for the team. There were lots of positives in there. The only thing that we can really control is the way that we perform, and the way that we perform increases our chances of getting results.
“I haven't checked, but if you go through the odds that go out before matches, I would guess we've been second favourite in all of them so far, and we probably will be for the next few as well. So, we are having to fight against the odds at the minute in the games, we're doing enough in them to give ourselves a chance of taking results and falling a little bit short.
“So, obviously, I'm disappointed with that, and I need to keep pushing to make sure that we don't come up short. As tough as the fixtures may be, we still need to find a way to get one done. But enough quality, enough good structure and enough togetherness to let you know that we're still fighting for everything, and that we're able to put results on the board.”
On taking a result playing badly
“I don't want to play bad or ugly. We probably played bad for 45 minutes against Chelsea. The rest of it, not bad at all. First half today we were a bit off, not sure why. Similar game plan to normal, but just getting a few bits of it wrong, maybe a lot of changes led to that, but we were able to tidy it up at half-time.
“We must have regained the ball just outside Brighton's penalty area eight times in the second half, and then just relying on that bit of quality. We had a one versus one right at the start of the half with Rodrigo against the goalkeeper and one cleared off the line. I would take an ugly win, but I'd much rather keep playing well.”
On Brighton’s goals
“The first one's a long way out, sloppy giveaway of course, but a long way out we've been hit with a few of them, not a great chance against us as similar to what you'd say with Harvey Barnes and Schar the other night, and it ends up going in. Disappointed with the defending a little bit on the second one. The lads understand, I think off the back of how stable we were second half out of possession, compared to how tough they probably found it first half, the importance of positioning and using your brain, not just your legs, to fix things.
“So, a big improvement second half. When you miss a chance at the moment, or one goes past the post, or they clear it off the line, you're like, ‘Not again. We're right in this, and we can't quite squeeze it over again’. But I did have real belief stood on the side of where the lads were, that we were going to go on to get something from the game, and we come up just short again.”
On player keeping their belief
“They can feel that we're in games, and they can feel that there's lots of good going on, and obviously I reinforce that with them, as well as the fact that it's no good just playing well. We have to find a way to be gritty enough and manage dangerous moments better to swing the result in our favour.
“The lads will be fine. They've shown in every game so far that they're ready to go again. Even if we go behind, they're ready to go again. Last season, when we suffered some tough results, they always found a way to bounce back. You can't play that well forever and not start to pick up results. It's a matter of time, of course, but we need to make sure that we force it.”
