Gary O’Neil believes results will begin to turn in Wolves’ favour despite his side falling to defeat at home to Newcastle United after an unfortunate final 20 minutes.
After Mario Lemina put Wolves ahead before the break, the Old Gold were cruising with a controlled second half performance, but after Fabian Schar’s deflected long-range strike and Harvey Barnes’ impressive finish, the game turned on its head.
Although denied their first win of the Premier League season, the head coach feels ‘big results’ will come if his players continue to perform like they did against the Magpies.
On a frustrating Sunday afternoon
“Frustration is the right word, because it's easy to feel down after results. But the group gave everything there was loads of quality. I thought we probably edged it, to be honest, for large parts, and we had an issue at the start that we managed to fix, and from then on, I felt really comfortable, because we were really dangerous.
“But it's where we are at this moment. We know we're in a tough run of fixtures, and we're playing against opposition who have big quality, and it seems at this moment that we've been heavily punished for any little error.”
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 15, 2024
On a last 20-minute collapse
“The first goal we concede is desperately unlucky and summed up where the game was heading. Schar ended up taking shots from there, it flicks off Daws and goes in. Second goal I’m really disappointed with because we speak to the full-backs about showing wingers outside all the time, literally every day since I’ve been here.
“Harvey Barnes is allowed to come inside and it's a fantastic finish, but it should never happen against us, so I’m disappointed with that. Nels [Semedo] having to come off was a big blow because he’s really important to us. We need to make sure that he can get through more of the game than he did today.
“But all that group could do is give everything, and show what they are, and you can see big moments of quality. I have no doubts that we’re going to pick up some big results if we continue to put in performances like we did today.”
On taking positives from the game
“The first one’s a deflection, but it can happen. We're not feeling sorry for ourselves or saying, ‘Oh, it's just one of those things’. It's not that, we had enough opportunities in the game, we hit the post at 1-0, Jorgen has a really good chance for header at 1-0.
“At one-nil I thought we looked the most likely for quite a while, and then we started to tire a little bit. We had a couple with cramp and we had to make changes and in that little spell we were punished for a couple of things that can happen at Premier League level.
“It’s a tough one to take on the chin, because a lot of me really enjoyed what the group gave today but it wasn’t enough for the fans in the end. The supporters will be frustrated at the moment, of course, because we’re in a run where it’s tough for us to win games, but they saw from the group, there was a lot of effort, a lot of quality, good understanding, even after going 2-1 down, we had a good few chances to score again.
“Lots there that stand us in good stead, but as we know, the Premier League is ruthless and we need to find a way to get some results.”
On having more option in his squad
“He's a big positive, Jorgen, and even Carlos, when he came on, he was bright, being able to freshen JJ up for Channy, and we’ve still got Rodrigo sat on the side there. We have better depth, and the run is the run, this team should be judged on what it did for the duration of last season.
“It's a different group, so last season was last season, overall, we managed to overachieve against what everyone expected us to be, and I'm sure we'll manage to do the same again this season. I'm sure we'll overachieve what most people have expected of us.”
On the search for a first win this season
“Everyone's desperate for it, of course, but that was close to being our best today. Of course, there's a few little bits that we could tidy up on, but we've gone up against a side who have spent an awful lot of money and were in the Champions League last season, and we didn't look like a lesser side.
“That takes a lot of doing against Newcastle, because there's not many teams that go out against them and just go toe-to-toe and have a real good game, and, in my opinion, looks slightly more likely to score than they do.
“But we need to make sure that turns into more than that and we’ll get back to work on it tomorrow.”
