We need to be clinical at both ends

Matt Doherty believes Wolves need to be more clinical at both ends of the pitch for the side to start earning results consistently.

Wolves have one win, one draw and one defeat in their last three Sky Bet Championship outings but the defender maintains that the performances haven't been good enough.

 

“We’re obviously not playing well enough," explained Doherty before adding: "Teams are playing better than us and being more clinical at both ends of the pitch.

 

“We’re just not putting the ball in the net and we’re picking it out of our own net too often.

 

“Clearly we have some good players in our squad. If we got some results together we could go on a run.

 

“It’s just getting that run started and we haven’t done that for a while now. Getting a couple of results in a row is what we’re finding hard to do and sometimes that’s all it takes.

 

“We did beat QPR and thought we may have nicked it against Fulham at the end but that didn’t happen.

 

“Something like that could have pushed us really nicely into Cardiff and we may have held on there.

 

“But obviously we didn’t and we’re back to square one again."

 

Paul Lambert's men fell to a 2-1 defeat away at the Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday night despite taking the lead through an early Doherty goal.

 

And the full-back revealed that the squad had to be hard on one another after the full time whistle.

 

He said: “That was a bad loss. Fans don’t mind if you lose in a certain way but the way we lost to Cardiff was bad.

 

“I said to some of the boys that we showed nothing in the second half and we got what we deserved.

 

“You have to be honest, we’re grown men at the end of the day. You can’t just be nice to each other.

 

“Jobs and points are at stake. We have to be honest with each other and if you don’t like it then you don’t like it but that’s just the way it is.

 

“Nobody’s getting away with anything. It’s not like we’re letting each other off the hook.

 

“We all know what we’re doing wrong and we all know what we were doing well at times. We need to really wake up and start winning games."

 

His strike on Tuesday night was Doherty's third goal of the season but, while he is relishing the attacking element of his role, the full-back explained that he is more concerned with the goals being conceded at the other end.

 

“The modern full-back has to be able to go both ways. I’m contributing one way but we need to stop the goals going in the other way," he said.

 

“I’m obviously looking to improve every aspect of my game defensively. Going forward it’s just natural; what happens, happens.

 

“We seem to be getting found out or punished for every single half-mistake that we make.

 

“I love going forward. My favourite part of the game is being in the opposition half.

 

“But, as my dad keeps reminding me, I’m a defender first and foremost so I need to make sure that I do that properly and then the opportunities will come going forward."

 

Doherty, who has been playing in the left-back position, has started to build a playing relationship with Ivan Cavaleiro who has been featuring for Wolves on the left wing.

 

When asked if Cavaleiro was beginning to become accustomed to English football, the defender replied: “The Championship is a really tough league.

 

“And coming over with not a great deal of English isn’t easy. It would be like me going to Portugal. People expect you to be flying straight away but that’s very rarely the case.

 

“He’s been doing well for the last month now and he looks really good. Not many of us could have scored the goal he scored against Fulham, to take that first touch and hit it with his left like that.

 

“He’s got a lot of ability and we really need him.

 

“In training he does stuff like that all the time and he’s starting to produce it in games as well which is what we need."