Boss Nuno Espirito Santo made several changes to his starting line-up, with the likes of John Ruddy, Adama Traore, Ruben Vinagre and Morgan Gibbs-White all give the chance to impress from the start. It was a chance that they grasped, with impressive performances across the pitch seeing Wolves run-out 2-0 winners thanks to two quickfire, first-half goals from Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez.
On the performance
“It was needed, and it was professional. Tuesday night (against Huddersfield) wasn’t good enough from our point of view, and maybe a few of the boys were a bit tired and a bit jaded.
“We’ve got quite a small squad and everybody is needed throughout the season, and Saturday showed that. I thought that all the boys who came in were outstanding to be honest. You can see from the boys who came in – everybody knows their jobs, every single player.
“It was pleasing to win the game as we did. It probably could have been more in the end, but I thought we controlled the game, nullified them and scored two brilliant goals.”
On John Ruddy
“He’s brilliant – he’s a huge part of this football club, as I’ve said before. He’s a huge part of that changing room and you know what you’re going to get from the big man – he organises, he leads, he talks and you know he’s a fantastic shot stopper as well. He was superb.”
On game management
“The game management aspect was huge – we were saying that at half-time. We’ve been in that position before (against Leicester, when Wolves led 2-0 and 3-2 before eventually running out 4-3 winners), where we knew we had to control the game in the second half.
“We knew we had to come back out of the blocks well, because Cardiff are a tough team – they play their system and they play it really well, so we had to be switched on. I thought we controlled the ball and we killed the game by doing that.”
