Gary O’Neil has called for his Wolves players to ready to battle in Sunday’s Black Country derby, but also reiterated the importance of staying professional and in control of their emotions as his team face West Bromwich Albion.
In the first derby in front of supporters for 12 years, the head coach understands there is a danger of his players getting caught up in the atmosphere but is confident that is not something which will impact his side during the 11.45am kick-off.
Although there is not a single member of the Wolves squad who have played in a Black Country derby in front of fans before – Craig Dawson was on the bench for West Brom during the last non-Covid meeting of the teams at Molineux back in 2011 – O’Neil also feels his squad have plenty of experience in dealing with high pressure derby games with their previous clubs.
On balancing passion and professionalism
“As head coach, there’s two sides to it – there’s the professional side, which is that it’s another game and it’s a game in the FA Cup which I want us to do really well in, and then there’s the understanding of what the game means to the supporters.
“I’m very aware of how important it is to them and I’m sure they want us to progress in the FA Cup as well as us just winning the derby. We’re connected in that, but the main focus for me is wining another game of football and then giving fans a great day is an added bonus.
“When it’s your job, the only importance to me is winning as many games as possible and that stands again this weekend.”
On not getting caught up in the atmosphere
“There can be a danger. The first one for disciplinary reasons, so you need to keep control of yourself, but more important than that is the decision making. I’ve been involved in many important games before and my first was probably a play-off final where I was so focused on the outcome and how important it was that I didn’t perform very well at all. I was very safe in my decision making. I was fortunate to get two more goes with it and I was much better after that.
“We need to be professional, we need to be calm, but we also need to be up for the physical side and be up for a fight and scrap, but there’s still a game to be won and you need to be in control of yourself. You need to be able to handle the ball, make good decisions tactically, so it’s more than just a coming together. There’s lots of things that will go into Sunday.
“But the lads understand that and we’ve got a group who are very good at that. We’ve shown good signs already this season so it will just be another test of whether we’ll be ready to scrap when we need to scrap and can we stay calm enough to have control of the game.”
On big-game experience in his squad
“There will be enough lads in there who have seen these things before. They will all be aware of the best way, but it’s an individual thing.
“I always found it easier to not think too much about the game until you got really close to it because you end up being too high too early if you build up to it the day before, but the lads will all have their own individual ways to ensure they’re ready come 11.45am.
“But we’ve got some good senior players in there who can keep control of anyone who starts to go away from where we need. But we’re really confident that we’re in a good place to deal with everything that is thrown at us on Sunday.”
On the early kick-off
“I’m excited and really looking forwards to it. It's a very early kick-off, so we won’t have to wait too long after we get up on Sunday morning, so let’s see if we can put another decent result on the board because we’ve been in a good run of form recently.
“It will probably be the earliest pre-match meal I’ve ever been involved in, apart from maybe when I was under-10s because we had a few 10 o’clock kick-offs then! But it’s extremely early and I can see what they’re trying to do by having it early, trying to keep control of the atmosphere and make sure everything stays on the right side of the line.
“We always report three hours 45 minutes before a game, pre-match is three and a half hours before, so it’ll be an early one for the boys, but it will be an early one for their lads as well, so we just need to make sure we’re ready and by 11.45am on Sunday, I’m sure we will be.”
Your support helped us through tonight 👏
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 16, 2024
Your reward: A Black Country derby 🔜#COYW pic.twitter.com/cQfrD32mGd
On different derby experiences
“I don’t know if they’re the same, and you don’t really know about one until you’ve been involved in one, or at least been to watch one. It will be my first experience of this one and I’ll be able to tell you more about it afterwards.
“But the noise I’ve heard around it, it’s a very big one and I’m sure that’s the same wherever you are. If you’re in Manchester, that feels like a big one. If you’re in Glasgow, I’m sure that feels big as well. But this is the one we have and this one hasn’t come around that recently, especially with supporters in, so it feels like a special one.”
On the FA Cup being special
“I have some really fond memories of the FA Cup growing up just watching it as a young boy. Wimbledon vs Liverpool sticks in my mind as one of the early ones – Dave Beasant saved the penalty and I was sat in my grandad’s living room watching that.
“You get that special feeling when the FA Cup comes around and the amount of games that there are and the importance of staying in the Premier League and teams trying to qualify for Europe has maybe given us a slightly different outlook on the FA Cup, but for me, it’s really proud to be part of it, especially with the significance of this fixture between two very famous clubs.”
