James Collins felt his side won without being at their best on Monday evening at Leicester City.
Wolves under-21s defeated the Foxes by three goals to one at Seagrave to pick up all three points in Premier League 2. And despite winning the game by a two-goal margin, head coach Collins thought there were both positives and negatives from the performance. However, Collins has praised the three ‘magnificent’ goals scored by Owen Hesketh, Justin Hubner and Leon Chiwome, while also touching on Saturday’s first-team game at Arsenal where three of his players were named on the substitutes bench.
On the performance
“I thought we were really clinical and we took our goals very well. The moves for the goals were really good and to get three goals away from home is always pleasing.
“We defended really well for long periods because we had to. They probed really well and were patient in trying to get in – we had to defend well.
“We gave a silly penalty away and the one-v-one defending at times was tested, but I thought there were some good performances in there.
“Marvin (Kaleta) was excellent against a really good player. Justin (Hubner) and Kam (Kandola) did really well at the back, Aaron (Keto-Diyawa) as well.
“I’ve probably been quite critical of them in there but when you win the game it’s probably a good time to be critical because they’ll take it on board.
“I would like us to keep the ball better under pressure and to do that you have to show the courage and bravery and see the pictures quicker.
“I can’t be too disappointed to win the game away from home 3-1. We’ve won three games on the trot now, three tough games and got three wins. There are pleasing things to take from it.”
On the three goals
“The goals were magnificent. If I took the best 20 clips from that game and put them in a little showreel, we’d look a million dollars – we’d look like a magnificent football team.
“If I took the worst 20 things we did out there, then we’d look like the worst football team in history.
“That’s how it felt, the game today. At times, we were absolutely magnificent and I thought at times we were really poor.
“That’s frustrating because when you’re playing well and doing the good things, you think we’ll build on that but then we’d have a 10-minute spell where we were poor.”
On players in the first-team squad on Saturday
“It was an incredible experience for the boys to go to the Emirates. Tawanda (Chirewa) nearly got on the pitch which would’ve been lovely for him.
“That’s what you get if you work really hard with our management team. They’ll give them opportunities.
“If they’re playing well, doing well and there’s spots to be taken then they’ve shown that they’re willing to do that.
“They’ve got to keep working, stay humble and keep trying to catch the gaffer’s eye.”
On games before Christmas
“We’ve got Norwich in the Premier League Cup which has become an important game for us because we had a poor performance in that competition last time against Charlton. We need a result to stay in the competition.
“Then we’ve got Blackburn in the league which is always a tough game. We’ve got two really important games and then hopefully we’ll get a little breather going into the Christmas period.”
