Wolves made it to the Europa League third qualifying round after a 6-1 aggregate victory over the Northern Irish side, but although the captain admits the team were gutted by conceding a goal early on in the tie, he was pleased with how his teammates responded after going behind.
On Europa League victory over Crusaders
“We’ve done it right, done it well, and we used it as a game to prepare for what’s coming next week as well, but we’ve also got the job done because we always knew it would be a tough game.
“We knew the first 15 was going to be hard as we knew they were going to come out, try to press us and get the ball in the box to the big lad that they had up front, and that’s what they’ve done, and they got the goal off it.
“We were gutted with the goal we conceded as we wanted to come here and keep it tight, but it was a good ball which ended up in the back of the net. We were gutted with that, but I thought we responded well, we were in control for the rest of the game, and Raul scored a couple of great goals.”
On having to win from behind
“Maybe you could say the goal sparked us into life, but I still like to think we would’ve got into the game a little bit more than what we were doing.
“But we knew what was coming, we knew how they would be coming out, but we didn’t deal with it like we should do, so we need to look at that and improve and get better.
“But from there I thought we controlled the game and made sure we were on top.”
On facing FC Pyunik in the next round
“It’s a different tie, it’s something different for us, but we’ll embrace it and we’ll look forward to it.
“We’re part of the Europa League and into the next round, which is what we wanted to do. We’ll go there as confident as we can be to hopefully get a result.”
On the start of the Premier League season
“Our minds are on Armenia now, it’s as simple as that, because we need to go there and put in a good performance away from home.
“It’s a European tie and one we’re looking forward to – that’s why we wanted to qualify for the Europa League, to have ties like this, so we’re preparing for that.
“But we know what’s coming next Sunday, it’s the start of the Premier League season, which we know how tough it’s going to be, but we need to make sure we do next week right to prepare the right way.”
