Rob Edwards dedicated Wolves’ first Premier League win of the season to the supporters who’ve had a tough time watching their side for much of the season.
Performances had been improving under the head coach, and everything came together for him against West Ham United, with first half goals from Jhon Arias, Hee Chan Hwang and Mateus Mane blowing the Hammers out of the water at Molineux.
The head coach added a first clean sheet to the positives, and although acknowledging it was only one win and it needed to be built on, Edwards was keen to make sure everyone enjoyed their Saturday evening after a long wait for a win.
On getting that first win
“I feel good. It’s probably a bit of relief, and I’m really pleased, but I realise it's only one win, and that's all it is. But it's been a good day, so I'll enjoy it, and we should enjoy it, but realise why we won a game of football, and I think it's because we're building, we're progressing, we're getting better.
“I feel like we were good for the result as well, not just the win, the actual result. Of course, we'll take it, because we could all enjoy it a little bit more, rather than it being very nervy.
“That was for the fans. They have had such a difficult time. I know it's only one win, but that is for them, they need to be able to enjoy it. I feel like they did. The players are with us and working hard, and you can see that. So, it was a good day today and it was nice to enjoy it and maybe be a bit relaxed in the last couple of minutes.”
You've waited a long time for that win.
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 3, 2026
Amazing support, all afternoon 👏 pic.twitter.com/QBACsZ1Hzc
On the players rising to the occasion
“We're trying to raise standards. If we just turned up and didn't do our job, the players would be the first ones to point to us as well. So, we’ve got to make sure we're organised and we're doing the job right, and the players see that and appreciate that, and then we've got to make sure we're continuing to try and raise standards. The lads have been with us from the start, I feel like we've had about the period of time of a pre-season, and we're seeing some progression. They are fighting, but they should do the professionals, they're getting paid to do that, and they will do.”
On Arias impressing deeper
“His last two performance have been really good in that eight role, a deeper role. He covers the ground really well and obviously has a real calmness in possession with the ball. They went again because they deserved to. The other day was maybe out of necessity, we had to make changes and shuffle the pack a little bit, but today certainly the plan was there and they had the opportunity to go and do it again and back it up, and I'm really pleased they did.”
On a first clean sheet
“It was nice to get that, of course. Being three goals to the good with 30 seconds to go I started enjoying it a little bit. Then I was thinking to tick another thing off and get a clean sheet as well. That was good. I felt we deserved it. Any time the ball came the box, I thought Sa was brilliant. We got blocks in, got headers in when we needed. I feel there wasn't too many heart in mouth moments, I felt fairly calm. We managed to keep the game, when we didn't have the ball, in front of us, and didn't really allow many spaces to get in behind. In those transitional moments, Bowen is obviously such a threat, but we didn’t allow that. We were pretty solid and deserved a clean sheet.”
