James Collins has praised the spirit shown by his side to fight and claw back three goals on the final day of the season at Manchester City.
Despite a 4-3 defeat at the Academy Stadium, Wolves under-21s all but secured their PL2 division one status for another season, with the three goals scored by Alfie Pond and Nathan Fraser (2) leaving the old gold in a strong position with both Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United playing each other in their final fixture on Sunday.
Collins has given his assessment of the season as a whole, explaining how a mixture of performances, player integration into the first-team and second-year scholars leading the front line has made for a hugely positive campaign.
On going toe-to-toe with the champions
“That’s the best youth team in the world we’ve just played. We’ve ran them unbelievably close and could’ve won the game.
“I thought first half we actually got the tactics really spot on and we had the best chances, but their real class at times showed and they were ruthless with it.
“The spirit to get one back before half-time helped. At half-time a lot of teams would come here and gone under at that point.
“We know goals are important in our league position in staying up or not staying up. We could’ve come out second half and got beat six or seven.
“The fact we came out, won the second half 2-0 and got back to 4-3 and had a good chance to equalise at the end, it was a terrific game of football.
“We showed unbelievable spirit and the boys can be really proud of what they’ve done today and throughout the season.
“We’ll see next week whether it’s enough to keep us in the division but what’s happened so far warrants staying in this division.”
On Nathan Fraser scoring again
“All of a sudden now his goal tally looks a lot better for the season and I think if he hadn’t got that, it would’ve been a bit unlucky and unfair.
“That’s great for him. We’ve got an end of season trip to India to go to so the season doesn’t end here for us – we’ve got about another month to go.
“There’s plenty more to work on, but Nathan deserves great credit to score five in two games as a second-year scholar is an excellent achievement.”
On the league campaign as a whole
“I think we’ve been terrific. It’s a really competitive league. Every time we’ve been in it in our past, we’ve got relegated from it.
“This year, to pick up the amount of points we’ve picked up, put in the performances we’ve put in and with some of the individuals progressing to the first-team, I think we can be delighted with the season.
“Developing players isn’t about what league you’re in. Last year we developed some terrific footballers – Theo Corbeanu, Hugo (Bueno), Chem (Campbell) in the second division.
“If we do go, we go again and we keep producing and keep improving. Coming to places like this is why we want to stay in this division.”
On second-year scholars stepping up
“Most of the last two months, our frontline has been second-year scholars – Ty Barnett, Owen Farmer, Josh Esen, Nathan Fraser.
“There’s no other team in the league with the whole frontline being second-year scholars and we do that for a reason because we think it’ll develop and help them in the long run.
“What can sometimes happen is the results don’t always go your way. We’ve tried to balance that off and get some good results and it’s helped when the gaffer’s given us Hodgey (Joe Hodge) or the odd week where we’ve had Bouba (Boubacar Traore) or early on in the season when we had Connor Ronan.
“I would imagine we’ve got one of the youngest squads or starting elevens every week, so it’s a test and a challenge.
“Those young boys have risen to that challenge and hopefully with Nathan scoring five goals in the last two games, you take a short-term hit when they’re getting used to it to hopefully get a long-term gain.”
