Gary O’Neil believes the togetherness and tight-knit bond between players, staff and fans has been vital in Wolves being able to compete in both the Premier League and FA Cup this season.
Ahead of the campaign, expectations from outside the football club were low for O’Neil’s side, but the head coach insists he has set the bar high for his players as they look to keep progressing to the latter stages of the cup as well as up the top-flight table, which would be helped with a positive result at Newcastle United on Saturday.
On team fitness ahead of Saturday
“Hee Chan won’t make the weekend. They’ll be more assessments after the weekend, but for now, he’s been ruled out. It’s disappointing because I knew there were a few players who were a risk for the midweek game in the cup. Channy was feeling fine before, all his recovery had gone well, so he was one we felt was able to go again, but things like that can happen.
“It’s disappointing that we’ve lost Channy because we know how important he can be to us. We don’t have a time frame. We were just figuring out if we could use him for this weekend, firstly. He’ll have some more results after the weekend and we’ll know more about how long and what it will look like, but hopefully it won’t be too long.
“Joao [Gomes] came off with cramp and tightness in his hamstring, but he’s feeling fine today, but we haven’t done much between games with the short turnaround. We haven’t named the team yet, so we’ll get up to Newcastle this afternoon and then do a bit more with the lads up there, see how everyone is and then make our selections from there.”
On a visit to Newcastle this weekend
“I’m really looking forward to Saturday, because it’s an incredible place to go, St James’ Park, and it’s a real good test because they come at you with everything there. They’re really aggressive and hopefully the boys can show once again that we can stand up to good sides and give a real good account of ourselves.
“They’ve suffered really badly with injuries. I talk about ours, but ours have only ever been one or two, but because of the size of our squad, that always feels like it has a big impact. Newcastle have suffered far more than that and have had a lot of key players missing, which makes it extremely tough.
“They’ve had a tough time, especially with the extra games they’ve had to play in Europe, but a lot of players are coming back now – Isak is a massive plus for them, so they’ll be a threat. We go there expecting to face a Newcastle team who are very dangerous.”
On an impressive February
“I’m extremely happy. I think every single player in the squad should be really proud with what they’ve been able to produce because we know how small the group is and we have missed key players at most part of this season.
“We spent a long time without Pedro [Neto], a long time without Channy and Rayan also when they were away, and now a long spell without Matheus Cunha, and at all those moments, the lads have found a way to dig in, keep producing results and keep picking up points. This weekend is probably our toughest test so far in terms of the efforts the lads have put in over the last few days, and it will be the first time that we’re without two of our five main attacking players.
“I don’t think we’ve had to go without two of them before, so it will be a real big test for us, no doubt, especially with the quick turnaround, but the group have continued to surprise a lot of people this season, and I’m looking forward to seeing how we can respond to yet another challenge.
Passion in the stands 🇧🇷😆 pic.twitter.com/0dMt8YpZyB
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 29, 2024
On the togetherness in the group
“We did a lot of work early on about how important it is for us to be together. We were really keen to use players initially and keep players and sign players who were of that ilk, who were willing to work every day, were willing to buy into the togetherness, and it’s a really important factor for the football club moving forward.
“It was one of the first things I spoke about with Matt Hobbs when I joined around tyring to make the club feel a bit closer, because obviously they’d had some great talent and had some great times, but it felt like it had drifted, and we were trying to reconnect it. The recruitment side of that has been huge and we push every day to remind people of the standards that we have, how we respond to disappointment and not allowing people to go off on their own and disconnect from what we’re trying to do as a team.
“Especially when you face tough times like we have, Wednesday, for example, was a tough game and you could see the players were tired and Brighton were in a good moment in the game and the boys had to dig in. If they weren’t together as they are, there is no way they’d have come through that like we did. Togetherness has been so important and it will be going forward.”
On pushing targets higher and higher
“I want the bar set high and I understand when you fall below it, it feels like failing. But that’s not a problem, it’s about how we do it and how we go about it. If we’d have failed against Brighton the other night having given what we gave, that would have been acceptable to me, as long as the players give everything that they can and they try and carry out what we want them to be, I can accept whatever comes with that, and I think the fans can as well.
“Obviously, we will try to push between now and the end of the season to keep results moving in the right direction, to push as high up the league as we can, to get as far in the FA Cup as we can, and to get some players back fit which will be massive for us – getting Cunha and Channy back soon as possible to add to the group.”
