The captain, who reserved special praise for the training ground routines of Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves after the latter’s finish put the team ahead at Molineux, admits the players have been working hard at enforcing their game plan on their opposition after winning all of their matches this season when taking a lead.
On Villa victory
“We’ve made ourselves happy and I thought it was a fantastic performance as well. We had a plan going into the game of what we wanted to do, we wanted to start well, and by half-time I thought we could have been two or three up, to be honest, because I thought we played that well.
“We came out in the second-half and managed the game, scored two brilliant goals with Ruben’s free kick and obviously Raul as well, so it was a brilliant day all round.”
On Neves’ opening goal
“Ruben’s goal was absolutely outstanding. We don’t know where Joao’s going to put those balls from the set-pieces, let alone the supporters or the opposition, but I think it’s better that way because that’s how it works.
“We didn’t expect it, but the finish from Ruben was class and they way they work it absolutely fantastic.
“To be honest, I didn’t have a clue that they were going to do it. They work on it between the two of them in training and they’re so clever.
“They work on it day after day in training on little routines and how they can get better and improve, but I didn’t have a clue they were going to do it, and the finish was brilliant.”
On derby day atmosphere at Molineux
“Molineux’s always rocking, it always is. We knew it was a derby, we knew Aston Villa were a really good side, knew that they would want to play and what they would want to do.
“We enjoy playing as much as possible, we’re enjoying playing the way we do and the way the game was played it was a fantastic atmosphere. The Wolves fans always create a fantastic atmosphere and we loved every minute of it.
“It was important that we imposed our way of playing on to them and I felt like we did that for the full 90 minutes, which was really pleasing.”
On heading into the international break on a high
“I think that is the big thing for all Wolves fans, they’re really happy going into it – especially with it being a derby as well, we knew the management of the game, what a win would implement in terms of the league table and what it means to people to win.
“We all understand that, and it was important that we imposed our way of playing on the game. I felt we did that; we moved them, we played how we wanted to play and scored two fantastic goals as well.”
