Gary O’Neil said a dose of belief was what his side required at half-time at Bournemouth and praised his players for the way they won it late on at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Trailing at the break, having created some big opportunities, O’Neil tweaked the approach and personnel on the pitch and saw his side take the game to Bournemouth, equalising after two minutes of the restart. Lewis Cook’s red card helped his side maintain their dominance and substitute Sasa Kalajdzic rewarded Wolves for their mature performance late on, much to the delight of his head coach.
On finding a way to win
“My team gave an awful lot. I thought we were the better side for most of it and were hard done by going in 1-0 down at half-time. We had big moments we didn’t manage to capitalise on, and they capitalised properly on their only real situation.
“I told the boys to keep believing. It’s possible to go 1-0 down in football matches, it doesn’t mean we have to panic. We needed a little bit more urgency in our play and they showed it second half. The goal for Cunha is a really good move, something we worked on hard. There’s satisfaction around the performance and how all the boys did today.”
On upping the intensity after half-time
“It wasn’t what you’d think [the team talk]. It wasn’t that it wasn’t good enough, there were good bits in there, but we needed a bit more urgency because we were losing. We needed to start upping the tempo, play forward a little bit earlier, but Bournemouth were what we expected, and the lads managed to find some real good situations. We should probably have scored a couple first half and didn’t, but two fantastic goals second half and we deserved to win the game.
“I could feel the lads were disappointed at half-time but there was so much good, and we needed to convince them that if we upped it, we’d get some joy. Really pleased with the response.”
On the substitutes making a difference
“We needed a little bit more control with the ball. A little bit more quality with the ball. Joao Gomes has done fantastically well for us this season, but Mario wasn’t there today, so it was a new partnership, and I thought maybe Tommy and Bouba would complement each other slightly better.
“We switched Cunha and ‘Channy’ as well to move Cunha to the ten and he scored a great goal from there, then Sasa comes on and gets a great goal. Some of the changes had an impact, but no credit to me, the lads have gone and put a real good display at a tough place to go.”
On facing on ten men
“It’s my first time as a manager playing against ten men. We moved a few things around, and I thought we got some joy. It’s difficult to score and Bournemouth will be disappointed with the second goal I’m sure, to turn the ball over with ten men, similar to what we did at Luton with ten men. We were camped, we were knocking, we looked like we might be able to create something, and it was a fantastic pass and fantastic finish.
“I thought we were the better side with 11 versus 11 and 11 versus 10. We’ve been on the wrong end of red cards and they’re difficult. You know how difficult it can be to break teams down, but the lads showed a good understanding of trying to get the ball wide and arrive with bodies in the box.”
On getting points from behind
“It’s a good one for us. We’ve taken the lead quite a bit and had to be the side which sits and counters, whereas today we took the game to them, and I liked how the boys handled it. They needed a little break at half-time to help them with a few things and show a bit more intent, but second half they were excellent. Even before the sending off, I thought we were in complete control. Delighted with the performance, the win and move on to Newcastle next week.”
