Wolves were the better side before the break and led through the move of the match and Adama Traore’s well-taken header, but Ruben Neves hit the post when looking for the two-goal buffer. Instead, the Eagles came back after the interval and Wolves needed a late break, which they didn’t get despite penalty claims and close calls in the closing stages, to the frustration of Davis.
On the fine margins
“I think if we’d have started the second-half better, I think it would have been a different result. I didn’t think we took out what we put into the first-half in the second period. We started very slow, they put us under pressure, we didn’t regroup at that point.
“I think we’ve got to learn in those moments to recognise when we’re under pressure, and try to get compact, ride that period through, and I think if we did, we’d have gone on and got a better result. Disappointed with the result but pleased with a lot of aspects of our game today.”
On a very good first-half
“First-half, we were excellent I thought. The plan was good, I thought we deserved to go in at 1-0, maybe two if the free-kick had gone in at the end. I thought we executed the game plan really well first-half.
“We stifled them, we played our midfielders a bit wider and ‘Bouba’ and Neves did a great job on the outside, and we scored with probably the best move. It was a fantastic cross and header, Adama round the back which we’ve been trying to get him to do for a while.”
He is so wonderful 🤩 pic.twitter.com/eD6inYqqXF
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 18, 2022
On the mentality when going ahead
“Against Forest, it went 1-0 and we got nervous. Rather than take the game to them, we dropped off and invited the pressure, and we did the same tonight. At 1-1, I still thought we’d come out with the result. We’ve got to be better when we’re 1-0 up and the first 10-15 minutes of the second-half were key.
“We talked a lot at half-time about how we start but we weren’t ready. It was a key moment being one up, because we knew they’d come at us. We probably needed to go long a bit but still tried to play and put ourselves under pressure, as a group we’ve got to recognise that, we more compact and harder to beat in that moment of the game.”
On Neves’ post hit
“They’re the big moments. He’s very, very good in that situation. We knew, just before half-time, if he could squeeze that one in, going in for half-time at 2-0 would have been better for us. We had a good chance with Diego first-half as well, and I thought we contained them very well, the shape was good, our plan was good.
“They pushed on a bit higher second-half. We didn’t deal with that very well and made some poor decisions. On the whole, I can’t fault the spirit, we kept going, we came back into the game, got some control, and gave it our best go. That spirit, that’s what we’ve got to find more of.”
On the penalty claim
“We’ve watched it and it looks like a penalty. The guy’s put his hand out and it’s hit his hand. I’m surprised, I don’t know what Lee Mason saw, but from the monitor, we looked at the different angles, and it clearly looks like he’s raised his legs and it’s hit his arm.
“I’m not sure, those moments have got to go for you and sometimes they don’t. You could see the excitement on the bench, at that point we were pushing for an equaliser and that was a key moment.”
On the triple substitution
“We had to. Adama was a doubt before, a little injury that might get worse, but he was important to how we were going to play, and I thought he was excellent first-half. Obviously, you don’t want to take a player off that’s causing problems, so it’s frustrating, but we had to do it. He’s done his course of time and couldn’t have done any more.
“Bouba was booked and hasn’t completed 90 minutes, so was fatiguing massively, and we thought we needed some legs in the middle of the pitch. Matheus got a bang on the head which was something we needed to look at.”
On Bueno’s full debut
“I thought he was excellent, didn’t let anyone down. He felt we trusted him, we know him, as a character we know what he’s capable of, and he’s ready. He was ready for that moment and I thought he took it really well. I thought he was excellent.”
