Sellars Devastated

The Under 23s took the lead in the game through a Sylvain Deslandes header in the 25th minute.

After being denied by a number of excellent saves by West Ham ‘keeper Raphael Spiegel, Wolves were pegged back as Jahmal Hector-Ingram equalised in the 80th minute.

The game looked to be heading to extra-time but into added time, Hector-Ingram brushed the path of Connor Johnson in the Wolves box and the referee pointed to the spot.

Over 700, mainly disgruntled, fans were in attendance to see Martin Samuelsen score the penalty to send West Ham into the play-off final.

Scott Sellars admitted he was devastated with the result, he felt that it was a poor decision by the referee that cost his side the game.

“Anybody who was at the game will see the situation. To a lose a game, you don't mind but to lose to a decision like that was pretty poor," he said.

“I thought the ref had a pretty poor game all night and that probably summed up his performance to be fair. I’m just devastated - there are a lot of young lads who have worked very hard all season and gave everything in that game.

“I thought we were excellent in how we played - at times our final play on the counter attack could have been a bit better.

“Overall, I thought the lads effort was outstanding - it was a good game and I felt we were the better team and that we had the bigger threat.

“They had a lot of the ball but they didn't really cause us problems.

“We had a lot of good counter-attacking situations, we played with good purpose but we couldn't quite get the goal.

“We have a style of play - we work hard defensively, we knew what they were about and that they were good with the ball but we felt that without the ball, they switch off a little bit.

“Our plan was to sit off and just let them have it and then try to hit them on the counter.

“We did that well, their ‘keeper made some good saves - in the second half, he made a double or even a triple save which was obviously key for them to have a chance to get back in the game.

“The goal was disappointing in terms of a cross into the box and nobody picking up the striker.

“The penalty says it all really.

“We came in at half time and I felt that we were just o-k.

“We weren't really at it and I felt we were just off the pace a little bit - we were playing a bit nervous.

“Second half, we wanted to play with a bit more aggression when we were pressing, we wanted to get a bit closer to them and then to keep the same mindset of when we win the ball, we would attack quickly.

“We did that well at times and overall the plan looked like it was going to work but in the end, they got the ball back - we looked a little bit shocked for a little bit.

“We came back from that and then the penalty changes the game.”

Following the disappointment of Monday’s game, Sellars’ side have the Birmingham Senior Cup final to look forward to on Wednesday evening against Leamington FC at Molineux (7.45pm).

Sellars says his players will have to get over the defeat following the ‘devastating’ defeat on Monday evening.

He continued, “we have to get over it pretty quickly because we’ve got a game on Wednesday.

“From my point of view, as I’ve always said about this group, they're a joy to work with - they come in everyday and give me everything they’ve got, they never leave anything in the tank and you’ve seen after the match that there are a lot of devastated boys when they got beaten.

“I feel for them, there’s obviously the referee’s decision but I just feel that if we’d have been a bit more clinical then we could have killed the game off.

“The fans were fantastic, they gave the boys a great atmosphere and stuck with them all the way.

“Even when they got back into the game, I thought the fans went even more with us - they supported us and at the end of the game, they were as frustrated as we were.”