Gary O’Neil praised the fighting spirit of his Wolves side as they gave their all during an impressive second half performance at Molineux but ultimately fell short as they suffered a last-ditch defeat to Manchester United.
The head coach felt his players showed ‘bundles’ of effort, quality and togetherness to battle back having gone into the break two goals down, and then to bring the game to 3-3 five minutes into added time. But with United snatching the three points, O’Neil was left with mixed emotions of pride but disappointment as unusual defensive lapses cost his side.
On fighting back in the second half
“I was proud of what they produced. Effort, quality, togetherness. Loads of it. Bundles of bundles of it. But I was disappointed with some of it. The first half got away from us and we didn’t really stick to what we do, we were aggressive and left ourselves far too open and got punished.
“But the second half was an incredible performance. I thought we were excellent and completely dominated. We had complete control apart from a couple of counter-attacks from them, so it was just a couple of details really.
“But we learn from every time we work together, every time we play, there’s things we can learn.”
On changes at the break
“We managed to correct a few errors. We went through some tactical stuff yesterday, but we struggled to execute it first half. There was just some reminders at half time and showed them some clips around what we were supposed to be doing, but we needed to get back to what we were.
“The second half was much more what we wanted and we had enough quality as well.”
On areas to improve
“The corner goal was really disappointing, as it just comes from an error from us, and to concede from the throw-in at the end was really tough for the boys to take. It was just not how we defend a throw. Whether the lads have got caught up in the emotion at that point, it just doesn’t look like us.
“There were some bits that were disappointing but I’m sure everyone enjoyed it. It was a big effort from us and another fantastic game.
“We look a really good side at times, but we just need to tidy up a couple of bits, try to improve and keep pushing. We don’t have much time to dust ourselves down for the next one.”
On taking positives from the defeat
“The boys with the ball were excellent and did some good work against a good side, so I’m disappointed because I hate talking about positives when we’ve not got any points, because we’re here for points. But the boys will learn from it.
“They’re a good side and there’s a big gulf with what they’re able to do, transfer and player-wise, and we bridged a lot of that gap today through togetherness, spirit and quality. We’ll keep trying to produce that and keep trying to improve.”
On aims for the rest of the season
“We haven’t set targets in points or league positions, we just want to be the best version of us. We were close today, there were bits that was, but there were loads that if you are so open against a good side you’ll be punished – as we were, so we just need to tidy that up.
“We will try to get the best out of what we’ve got, and whatever that is, if we’re 10th trying to push to 9th, whether we’re 15th trying to hold off the bottom three, whatever it may be, every time we play can we make it look how we want, can we give the best version of ourselves? Then we will see what we can achieve.
“I’m proud of them, but also disappointed that we’ve slipped up on a couple of little bits that I didn’t see us slipping up on. Chelsea in two days’ time, so let’s get ready.”
