Cav's The Man

Andy Lonergan says that the return of Ivan Cavaleiro has been a catalyst for Wolves’ recent run of good form.

Cavaleiro spent around six weeks out through injury and returned from the substitute’s bench during the dramatic win at Brentford.

Since then, the Portuguese forward scored the opening goal at Fulham and played nearly three quarters of the game on Saturday.

Lonergan says that having Cavaleiro back in the side has given the other forwards more space to play.

He said, “having Cavaleiro back has been massive because you can see what he does for the team - he gives Costa and and the other forwards freedom. I think that’s the big difference to when we were struggling.

“He’s one of the few players in the league who can carry the ball - he can carry it 50 or 60 yards.

“Him and Costa have got that understanding where it’s like they're just playing together against another team. It’s great for us to have them two at this club.

“The lads are on a great run of form and hopefully we can keep it going.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to come in once or twice every six months - I’ve not played since November, it was difficult but it’s one of those where I can build on it.

“You want to do your best, you want your team to win - it can be tense and it can be nerve-wracking but I think at the moment, we’ve got so much quality in the team.”

Wolves have now gone five games unbeaten, a run which has seen them pick up four consecutive wins.

The Wolves ‘keeper believes that the win at Brentford was a turning point for the club, he says that it gave the players belief that they could score goals.

“I think the gaffer has said before, we weren't actually playing that badly at times.

“Some games we weren't playing too well and probably didn't deserve to win, but other games I thought we did really well but lost or drew.

“I think the turning point was probably Brentford, where we absolutely battered them and it looked like we were going to get beaten 1-0, and then we turned it on it’s head.

“Costa scored, ‘Doc’ (Matt Doherty) pops up with a good goal and from then it gave us a belief that we can put it in the net.

“With the players we’ve got going forward now, we just need to give it to them and let them do their stuff.

“I know the fans weren't too happy with the Rotherham performance but a game like that where we weren't good but we needed to win.

“It’s hard to come by three points, three points were hard to come by going into it - that win gave us a huge boost where we were outstanding.
 
“I thought we were excellent at Reading but we lost. It’s fine margins, we played Brentford and turned it on it’s head, then we went to Fulham and the belief going into that game was that we were going to win.

“It’s unbelievable that you can think like that after what we had gone through.

“It’s strange but this feels like if we can get the momentum going this season, then next season who knows what could happen.”

Wolves host Nottingham Forest at Molineux on Tuesday, kick-off is 7.45pm.