Gary O’Neil felt Wolves were well worth their first win over West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns since 1996 but was lift disappointed by the scenes from the crowd after his side scored their game-clinching second.
Trouble arose in sections of the stadium after Matheus Cunha had put the Old Gold two-up in the Black Country derby after Pedro Neto had opened the scoring in the first half, securing Wolves’ passage into the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup.
But the Wolves head coach insisted scenes witnessed in the stands, which saw the game suspended for more than half an hour before the players returned to the pitch to see out the victory, have no place in the modern game, and that everyone should feel safe when they come to watch football.
On Neto and Cunha’s contribution
“They’re both hugely important to us. We are really short as a football club in numbers for attacking players, but we’re not short in quality. Pedro and Cunha, Channy [Hwang] not being here, Bellegarde as well had some good moments today, we had to use Rayan [Ait-Nouri] as an attacker, Tawanda [Chirewa] coming on again, so we are short in the attacking area, but the quality we have there, we are a threat.
“I’m delighted with both of them, I’m delighted that Pedro managed to get through another stint, he looked sharp, and Matheus Cunha was excellent.
“He just improved his off the ball stuff, because his ability is exactly the same as it always was, but his connection to the team and his tactical understanding, he leads the group a little bit now, so he’s matured an awful lot since I’ve been here, so I’m really pleased with where we’ve got him to.”
🫵 @pedrolneto7 pic.twitter.com/sDlUiH4MxR
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 28, 2024
On the unsavoury scenes from the stands
“It’s really disappointing because up until that point it was a really good tie, a good atmosphere and I’m not really sure what happened. There was a bit of trouble in the corner and the ref advised that it might be better for us to leave the pitch as that could help the police to calm it down.
“Without knowing exactly what happened, but the way people behave when they come to football is really important. There are children in the stand, there are elderly people in the stand, so I hope everyone is ok, and it’s just something we need to look at – the game around making sure everyone is safe when they come to watch football matches.
“Families coming to watch games shouldn’t need to be involved in things like that. I couldn’t really see what was going on, but the West Brom players’ families were in that area, so it was a real concern for them. I just hope everyone is ok.
“I’m not really sure what stoked it, but I’m glad we managed to get the fixture completed safely, with no more trouble from that moment. I just hope there’s no lasting effects on anybody. You could tell when we came back out that the atmosphere felt very different from that moment, so it was a real shame.”
On the decision to come back
“It wasn’t us, it was the officials, the safety officer and the police. They were telling us if they were ready to go or not, but there were slight concerns around how long we had to wait because players were cooling down. I took Pedro off because we didn’t want him stopping and starting again.
“We didn’t really have a say in it, we were just asked how long we were willing to wait and we didn’t want to wait too long because the players were at risk at that point, but thankfully they were able to get it under control and finish the fixture because it would have been a shame to have had to come back and finish it at a different time. It was better that we got it finished.”
LOVE IT! ✊ pic.twitter.com/z9tUupMLPq
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 28, 2024
On what he told the players during the break
“Just to stay calm. The first thing was to sit down, chill out and get some fluid on board because it was the later part of the game, and we managed to get some tactical fixes on which helped, and then made sure we stayed calm.
“We’re not involved in anything here apart from a football match which we’re trying to win, so stay focused on that. I thought they did well when they came out and maintained control, and it felt like a fairly comfortable victory.”
On aiming for cup glory
“I don’t know about aim, but when we were drawn at Brentford away, I said the aim at that moment was to win the FA Cup, so it was Brentford then and today it was West Brom, so let’s see what we’ll get in the next round, but we’ll try to win every game.
“We’ve got Manchester United and Chelsea coming up in a few days’ time and three days apart, so it will be a big testing week for us, so we need to get the boys recovered and get ready for two very big league games and see what the draw holds for us.”
