Rob Edwards was left feeling frustrated after his Wolves side were unable to complete their fight back against 10-man Sunderland.
Having fallen behind to Nordi Mukiele’s header inside 20 minutes, Wolves were boosted by Dan Ballard’s dismissal moments later which shifted the tie in the Old Gold’s favour, which was capitalised on by Santi Bueno’s header just after the break.
And despite several chances falling Wolves’ way, Edwards was disappointed that his team could not find that second goal and claim all three points.
On taking a point against Sunderland
“I’m frustrated, and all the lads are as well. It was obviously challenging, but the overriding feeling is a lot of frustration. We did create some good opportunities, we did some scrambles, there was some moments where we didn’t get the header or the shot away, but we’re there and maybe it should have been a goal, but it wasn’t.
“We tried to push, we tried to get more forwards on, and Sunderland look good when they’re in that sort of block anyway, and I’ve gone up against them last year in the Championship, where they’re really effective with it and when they needed to be this year they’re very tough to break down. Then with this situation, I think the pressure’s off and then they go down to 10 and although it eases on them, it ramps up on us even more
“We could all feel the energy in the stadium and it probably made the players a little bit more anxious than we would like, but we got back in the game and then we were disappointed not to have got the other goal to take the win.”
On making positive changes
“We looked at doing it in the first half, but we made a positive change with Rodrigo coming on at half-time and I thought we started the second half very well. Things were working and we got the goal, but then there was a little bit more of a lull.
“But we went again with another change, as Hugo did well to get through to the moment he did as he’s not trained much this week with his knee. I know there was frustration when he came off, but there’s a reason for it, and we’re trying to get another forward on the pitch.
“We finished off with three defenders on the pitch, and we tried to go with as many midfielders and forwards as we could, but we just weren’t capable of finding that second goal. There was also a bit of thinking that we’ve got make sure we don’t lose this because towards the end, it could have gone a little bit either way, but we tried to make as many positive changes as possible and affect the game in an attacking way. We tried to win it, but we unfortunately weren’t able to.”
On taking off Hugo Bueno
“They [the fans] love Hugo – and we do as well – but the rationale was pretty clear behind it. We wanted to get another forward on the pitch, and we still wanted to look after him.
“He’s not been fully fit all week, he’s not trained fully all week, and he did great to be out there anyway. People just need to understand it and the reason behind it, and this gives me my opportunity to explain the reason for it.”
On going straight down the tunnel
“I was frustrated, but I also just thought, ‘I’m not going to incite it anymore’. I don’t want to make the ground any angrier. But it’s understandable. In the end, the work that we do in the summer, and getting off to a good start, that will be the most important thing.
“I understand the situation at the moment – being relegated, we’re bottom of the league, we’ve gone down, we’ve drawn a game against 10 men, we’re just off the back of three defeats in a row – there’s a lot of anger around and I’m going to take it. It doesn’t concern me, but we’ve got to continue to work hard and stay strong.
“We’ve got three more games where we’ve got to try and get more results. We did get a result today and we can turn things around. I knew coming in this was going to be really challenging and I knew at some stage we were going to be in this sort of situation. At times you do think, ‘Why do we put ourselves through it?’ But it’ll be all the more rewarding when we are able to turn things around.”
On needing a win
“Relegation has been confirmed, we’ve lost three games in a row before today, and that’s probably it. We’re still the same people, we’re still doing a lot of good work, and when you go up against all the coaches and the other managers, they’re all so positive about how we’ve done, because they understand the situation that we’ve been in, but that doesn’t matter.
“It’s about winning football matches, and we haven’t done that in the last four games. We’ve lost three and drawn one, so it’s understandable. We’ve just got to stay strong and take it. People were happy then because we beat Villa, we beat Liverpool, came back against Arsenal, and the same against Brentford, so there was some good things.
“We came back today, we showed some fight, we didn’t go under, and we’ve got to continue to work hard.”
On feeling confident about the future
“Look at what we came into. We were on two points, and we hadn’t won for God knows how many months. It was always going to be hard, so it’s not going to be a great feeling around. I knew that, but we’ve got to continue to work hard and make sure we’re able to turn things around.
“I’m confident when I speak to Matt Jackson, or speak to Nathan Shi, that we’re going to be able to do that. I’m alright with it and in a strange way, I’m really energised with it and I’m really looking forward to when we’re able to sit here and we’ve won a number of games in a row and we’re able to talk in a really positive manner about it, but it’s always going to take a bit of time.”
