Rob Edwards has drilled into his players that their mentality will be crucial when Wolves head to Grimsby Town on Sunday lunchtime.
The Old Gold face League Two opposition in the fourth round, but a side unbeaten in their last ten matches, and with a history of overcoming Premier League opposition earlier in the season in the Carabao Cup.
Edwards’ group professionally dealt with Shrewsbury Town in the previous round, and now the head coach, who is keen on a cup run but is refusing to look beyond Sunday, knows his players must approach this tie in the same manner.
On attention turning to the FA Cup
“It doesn’t feel any different. We're preparing for another game and looking forward to it. It's a brilliant competition that we obviously want to progress in. We’re treating it very normally, and giving it everything we can, but we're doing that in the league, it's not like we need a break from the league, we want to try to keep getting better. We're in a difficult position, but we’re still trying to enjoy what we're doing. This is another game and we're preparing in exactly the same way.”
On approaching it professionally
“It won’t feel normal because the environment will be different. We will be expected to win, and that's no disrespect to them at all, I’m well aware of how well they're doing and who they have beaten this year. We've spoken a lot about mentality with the players and that will be really, really important going into this game.
“It’ll be a very difficult game. We're under no illusions how well they're doing, and how difficult they will make it. They'll try and press us, they'll try and take the ball, that's how they’ll play. They've got a really good way about them, very well coached, and they're doing very well, not conceding much at all at the moment, and they have got a nice way about them. It will be a difficult game for us again. So, it's down to our mentality, and we’ve got to make sure that we turn up.”
Jose Sa somehow keeping this out 🧤 pic.twitter.com/ZfXdXYB7ZQ
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 12, 2026
On a special competition
“It's lovely to dream. The aim is to win the tie, and then we see where we go. But of course, we respect the competition, and it's a game that's really important to us. All we're thinking about is Sunday. We want to go as far as we can. We'd love to progress and go deep into the competition, and we'll certainly try to do that. But I'll reiterate it, we’ve got a big, big job to do on Sunday first. I don't want to be talking about getting ahead of myself or thinking about further rounds when we've got Grimsby ahead of us.”
On remaining motivated as a group
“We're in a difficult situation, so if everyone decided to not turn up anymore, we'd be getting pretty badly criticised. We're all fighting for something now, fighting for our careers and fighting for the football club. It's important that we show up, and the lads are doing, we didn’t get everything right the other night, far from it, but one thing we did get right was some fight, some determination and some spirit, and those things are really, really important.”
