Fer Lopez said it’s “like a breath of fresh air” being back at Wolves after he shone in the Old Gold’s win at Preston North End on Saturday.
The Spaniard in back for a brief return to Celta Vigo last season and, having caught the eye in recent weeks, enjoyed his best afternoon yet in an old gold shirt, after his emphatic early strike at Deepdale set Wolves on their way to victory.
His controlled finish later in the day put the result beyond doubt and Lopez is now thrilled to be enjoying his football and entertaining Wolves supporters, of which there was 5,600 in Lancashire to witness the away win.
On a good afternoon’s work
“I enjoyed it a lot, especially winning, that was the main thing. This league is very hard, I checked the results and some big names lost points. Blackburn, we tied against them and it was the end of the world, they beat Middlesbrough a very good team. This league, every game is very hard, you just have to try to win, and luckily we did that today.
“I think it was very important to score early. The difference between this game and the other one was our press. Today we didn’t jump a lot because we knew they didn’t want to play a lot from the back, they prefer long balls, so we were a bit more defensive in that scenario. The most important thing is seeing which team you’re playing against, analysing them well and today we did good.”
Fer's first of the afternoon 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Nwl2gH80IZ
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 22, 2026
On his opening goal
“Andre gave me the ball, and I felt the defender so tight to me, so before I received it I knew what I was going to do. I let the ball roll and drove forward. Then, when you have so much space, you start thinking about a lot of things. Every time I touched the ball, I went a bit slow to see how things moved. I was looking for Raul or for Mane, but when I saw the defender wasn’t coming towards me and I could see a bit of space at the near post, I tried to make the goalkeeper think I was going to shoot towards the second post and then went for the near post.
“It was good. I need to shoot more, like the coach tells me, so I’m happy to score. It’s a very good feeling. It’s even better in front of our fans, but I also like it a lot when the stadium suddenly silences.”
On his second goal
“The ball went to Tommy and I think he meant to take a touch, but it was a good assist for me. Now, I’m looking to find the shot, but before I was always trying to find the final pass, but now I’m more direct. When the ball is in those areas, I’m much more focused. I reacted before the defender and then it was quite an easy finish. You could see the whole away end was full of Wolves fans, it was crazy. We’re very happy that they support us as good as they do, and we want to win the league.”
Two for Fer Lopez ✌️ pic.twitter.com/eUJgVKnqmE
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 22, 2026
On the difference to last season
“It’s very different, for sure. Like a breath of fresh air. Everything’s news. A lot of players came back like Tommy and Bouba. We hope we can add some new signings also, so we’ll see what happens.
“Today was a very good feeling, especially because it was quite a comfortable win. It was 3-0 until right at the end, so I was disappointed that we conceded. I didn’t like that, but that’s football. Now we have to focus on the Carabao Cup, recover as well as we can to be in the best shape possible.
“We have a lot of confidence now. We’re playing the type of football the coach wants from us, so it’s about continuing to build on that and getting better.”
