Matt Doherty insists Wolves have a ‘top mentality’ despite the Old Gold seeing their first half lead fall away after the break against West Ham United on Saturday afternoon.
After seeing a late equaliser ruled out by VAR, the defender was left upset with a decision he believes ‘lacks common sense’ but is adamant that the players will not take their disappointment drag on as they look to bounce back against Nottingham Forest next weekend.
On seeing the equaliser ruled out
“We’re very disappointed with the decision. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goal get disallowed from a cross and a header straight in like that. I don’t think he’s [Chirewa] interfering with the goalkeeper at all.
“The goalkeeper can clearly see the line of the ball and it’s so far in the corner he doesn’t even bother to dive for it, that’s how far away he is from getting to it.
“Then when the referee gets sent over you think he’s getting sent over just because the VAR isn’t sure, so they’re sending him over for his own opinion. But his own opinion lacked common sense in the end.
On full-time scenes
“I didn’t see what happened at the end. There was obviously a lot of people who had their fair share of words to say to him. Not even saying stuff in an insulting way or a bad way, but just to try and figure out what he saw and what his thinking was.
“We know the rules in term of the offside rule, but for me, he’s not interfering with the goalkeeper in any way. The goalkeeper will still see the line of the ball, and if you look at the goalkeeper, he doesn’t even complain.
“He sticks his hands up in a token kind of way a few seconds after the ball goes in. For us, we just feel that it was a cross and a header and it got disallowed.”
On O’Neil’s reaction in the changing room
“He's obviously disappointed with the goals we gave away, never mind the decision at the end. The goals we gave away were not good chances, they were just poor from us, so we’re pretty disappointed.”
On fighting until the end
“We have a top mentality, for sure. It’s been instilled into us by the manager and he doesn’t let us slip and doesn’t let us kind of get comfortable and he doesn’t want us to let the season go flat. We obviously have a lot of injuries, but that’s the point in having a squad.
“You’ve got players who can fill in and we’ve got players playing out of position everywhere. We’re down to the bare bones, but it just means other people get an opportunity.”
On the remainder of the season
“We just want to finish as high as possible. We want to win as many games towards the end of the season as possible.
“Every game still means something to us and the gaffer told us in there that we’re not just going to let the season go flat, we want to try and push because there’s still teams around us we can catch, there’s still teams behind us who can catch us, so there’s plenty still to play for.”
