Head coach Gary O’Neil believes there is no magic wand for turning around form and that Wolves must “work hard” to get back on track following their setback at Ipswich Town.
A much-changed side led 2-0 at Portman Road before succumbing to a comeback defeat at the hands of the Championship club, therefore ending the Carabao Cup journey. While he was thrilled by some of the individual performances, O’Neil admits his temporary team struggled to gel and was upset to lose the game from a dominating position.
Regarding how the tie went
“I thought we looked like a team that hadn’t had much practice together.” I think the boys gave it their all, and there were some good portions and some awful sections that looked like a team that had been put together vs a team that had been together for a long time, and we came out on the losing end.
“I don’t think there was much in it, particularly in the second half; I don’t think they had much at all.” ‘Bents’ had little to do. Obviously, the boy scores a long-range worldie, and we huffed and puffed with a few chances. There wasn’t much going on throughout the game.”
On the decision not to force an equalizer
“We came up against a side that was in good form. It was disappointing to lose after leading 2-0. A poor first goal shifted the momentum. They didn’t offer us much trouble in the second half, and we missed a handful of good chances around their goal.
“There is no magic wand; it is hard work, and there are things that need to be fixed, and we are working hard to fix them.” We’re dissatisfied with the outcome, but we must dust ourselves off and get back to work. “We have a tough game coming up this weekend.”
On the squad selection
“There were some changes enforced, Sasa was asking to come off because he’d run his race and couldn’t do any longer. Channy’s had some hamstring injuries and definitely wasn’t one who needed to do 90 this evening with big games coming. Some of the other lads got some good minutes into them which will be important. I thought Bouba Traore was excellent.
“The game’s changed a lot and you have big squads, and you need people to get minutes. Some of them deserved minutes, they work their socks off every day and have been waiting for an opportunity. Some of them got that today and I thought Bouba did well, Tommy Doyle did well, Channy obviously did well.
“Channy’s fine. He was feeling a bit tired towards the end, and he was doing a lot of running. He had a good game, to be fair, he caused them some problems running in behind, but the squad’s not the biggest or deepest, especially in those areas where Channy plays. It’s always a tough balance between wanting to keep him on, but if something happens and we lose him for league games we’d be kicking ourselves.”
On Santi Bueno’s debut
“I thought he did OK. There were points were Ipswich caused him some problems, first game, new team, new partnership, so not an easy one to come into, but one he needs. I need to see him, and he needs to play with his team mates.
“We’re still very early, I know there’s a desperate need for results, that’s the nature of the business, but we are six weeks in against a team which has been doing that stuff for a long time.”
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