Wolves’ longest-serving player, who is in his ninth season at Molineux, has flourished in recent seasons after making the transition from left-back to a goal-scoring right wing-back.
The 27-year-old has also admitted he is ‘completely settled’ at Wolves, feeling more at home in gold and black now than ever before.
On securing future at Molineux
“I last signed about 18 months ago, and it’s been a good ride since then. We’ve got promoted and we’re still in the midst of a really good season, so I’m happy to tie down my long-term future.
“I’ve been here nine years and they’ve not got rid of me, so I’ll be here for a while yet. I love it here and don’t want to go anywhere. I’m completely settled, so long may it continue.
“Me and ‘Coads’ have both been here a long time now, but we still think about the times we were in the Championship and losing at home to Wigan. The place was half-empty, and you’d get booed off – rightly so for some of the performances that we were putting in.
“Looking at how we’ve progressed to what the club is now, especially as it’s not that long ago; maybe two, two-and-a-half years, and I think a lot of credit has to go to the manager, his backroom staff and the players for the efforts they’ve put in.”
On evolving as a player
“I’ve personally changed as a player in that time. Fitness-wise, I feel fitter, even my mental space is probably a lot better now also. I think during the last few years I’ve really matured and grown up, but I’m still improving.
“I’m only 27 so there’s still time to improve and get better, and that’s going to be at Wolves.”
On being settled at Wolves
“If I don’t feel settled now, when will I ever really feel settled? I’ve been here for a long time, I’ve seen all the changes within the club; on the field and off the field.
“Right now, I’m completely comfortable. I’ve got a young family and we live in the area, so I’m probably feeling my most comfortable now in all my years here.
“I know what people mean if they say you’re too comfortable, but all I think is if you’re happy, if your whole life is happy, and you’ve got a way of doing things, then on the field you’re going to perform better.
“If everything’s a bit chaotic and all over the place, I’m not saying it might affect you in a big way, but the way it works for me is that I’m settled, I’m happy on and off the field and that’s going to help my football.”
On position transition
“We were joking beforehand about the left-back situation, but that was what actually got me back into the team initially.
“I had a year-and-a-half there which kick-started my career again because I was out of the team for quite a while before switching over to the right-hand side and everything has worked out since then.
“I’ve not had many lows since the new manager came in and things are just going really well. I have no complaints about anything.”
On his rise with Wolves
“Since I’ve been here I’ve been looking up rather than down. You look at the kinds of things you might be able to achieve and the squad we have now is obviously a very good squad.
“We’re in seventh position and we’ve hopefully got a good cup run ahead of us, so the sky’s the limit is how we’re thinking, but let’s see how the back end of the season comes out.”
On approaching the FA Cup
“We want to go and win it, to be honest. We have Bristol on Sunday which is obviously going to be a tough game, but if we bring our ‘A game’ then we should get the job done. You then have the draw and we’ll see what happens then, but we’re pretty confident.
“I don’t think there’s many teams who will want to come and play us, there’s not many Premier League teams left in the competition, so if we do things properly we’ve got a good chance.”
On last season at Ashton Gate
“The end of that game, when Ryan Bennett scored the winner in the last minute, was the best feeling I had last season.
“I know we got promoted and had some great days on top of that, but that feeling inside when that happened was the best one I had last season.
“It’s going to be a good game, a good atmosphere, and they’re obviously going to bring their best game and they’re going to want to beat us.
“That game will give them extra motivation because we kicked on from there and got promoted, but they’ve changed a lot of players and are doing really well. They’ve won nine games in a row and are in the play-offs, so it’s going to be tough.”
