Doherty revelling in Premier League life

Matt Doherty admitted that life as a Wolves player has rarely been more enjoyable, after Nuno Espirito Santo’s side produced a dominant display to secure victory over Burnley at Molineux on Sunday.

The hosts were impressive throughout, continuing their encouraging start to the new campaign with a 1-0 win over Sean Dyche’s visitors.

Doherty, who has represented Wolves in three different divisions, said afterwards: “I can’t tell you how much fun it is to play in this team – just the way we play, the movement we have and the fact that we all know exactly what we’re doing. It’s perfect for us and it’s producing some good performances and, more importantly, good results.

“I was impressed by the way we played against Burnley – even though I was on the pitch myself, I was still impressed! We haven’t created that many clear-cut chances in one game for quite a while, so things are going well.”

Having set up the winner for Raul Jimenez, Doherty added that – after winning his third cap for the Republic of Ireland during the international break – there is plenty of positivity at a personal level, as well as amongst the team.

“I’m very happy with my form at the moment,” he continued. “I had a sticky game against Leicester a few weeks ago but I’ve managed to bounce back from that and then come back after the international break and keep it going, which you can never take for granted.

“My dad was over for today’s game – he hasn’t been to many lately but he chose a good one to come over for. He’ll still probably tell me what I did wrong in the car on the way home, but he’s my biggest fan as well as my biggest critic.

“At the moment it’s a good time for me, but you know what football is like – you have to enjoy those good moments when you have them.”

The full-back conceded that if there was a downside to Sunday’s thoroughly dominant performance, it was that Wolves didn’t add to Jimenez’s second-half strike. The home side registered 30 attempts on Joe Hart’s goal, with an inspired first-half display from the former England goalkeeper, along with wasteful finishing in the second half ensuring that home fans endured a nervy final few minutes despite their side’s superiority.

He said: “It could have been more. We obviously need to do quite a lot of work on putting the ball in the net more, because that can cost you in this league. But it’s still three points at the end of the day, whether you win 1-0 or 5-0, and the three points is what we wanted going into next weekend.

“I’m just glad we didn’t concede towards the end because that can often happen when you haven’t taken your chances, but we were defensively good enough. We have a belief that we can beat most teams, and that belief along with the performance against Burnley will stand us in good stead going into a big game next week at Manchester United.”