Wolves will be looking to end the pre-season on a high following last Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat away at a strong Celtic XI as they go against an Oxford under-23 side which they took four points from in last season’s Premier League Cup group stage.
Following Tuesday’s friendly, the under-23s will start their first season in the top flight of development football with a trip to Brighton and Hove Albion on Monday 12th August.
WHEN
Tuesday, 6pm
PRE-SEASON RESULTS
0-2 v Celtic XI (A)
1-0 v Swansea City U23 (A)
0-0 v Hereford (A)
0-5 v Kidderminster Harriers (A)
0-1 v Villarreal B (A)
0-1 v Real Murcia B (A)
6-1 v Hednesford Town (A)
2-1 v AFC Wulfrunians (A)
WHAT THE BOSS THINKS
On challenge Celtic posed
“It was a really good test, but it was tough for the players. We wanted to give them a tough week – going to Swansea on the Monday and then away to Celtic on the Wednesday; it’s almost as hard as you can get in terms of travelling in the UK, but full credit to the lads and the staff, because everyone was prepared and ready.
“I was quite pleased with the first-half of the game itself, coming in 0-0 at half-time we showed good build-up and control, without creating too much, but we were slightly edging it. Celtic had about four first-team squad players in their group as well, so it was a tough test.
“In the second-half we looked a bit jaded due to the game on the Monday and the travelling, so we made a few changes but lacked rhythm after that and couldn’t get our usual game going. Neil Lennon went mad at their lads at half-time, injected some life into them and changed their shape and they scored the two goals.
“In terms of an exercise it was a really good week, with the two games against good opposition, and it will be good to play against Celtic again during the season down at Compton.”
On final week of pre-season
“We’ve not done much in terms of recruitment at the moment and we still expect a couple of the lads to go out on loan.
“It’s great that Niall (Ennis) and Cam (John) went out last week and Niall made his debut for Doncaster on Saturday, while Ryan Giles scored a brilliant goal in his first game for Shrewsbury. This is what it’s about; we want to try and get people into the first-team here or somewhere else, so it’s really good to see them doing well on loan.
“We will see if we do any more business, for ourselves in the next couple of days and if it doesn’t happen, we’ll go forward with what we have. We know it’s going to be a tough year with the step-up in league and an extra competition in the International Cup, so – as staff and as a group – we need to be even better, more organised and hard-working than we have been.
“Oxford is our last pre-season game and we’ll look at getting some 90 minutes into the group so the lads are prepared as they can be ahead of Monday’s game against Brighton, which we know will be a really difficult start but one we’re looking forwards to.”
