James Collins has suggested that his side’s work off the ball paved the way for them to run riot against Everton on Easter Monday.
Wolves under-21s put five past the Toffees following a dominant and ruthless evening of football at Aggborough, as the old gold collected three valuable points in PL2. Owen Farmer stole the headlines with a first half hat-trick, before Josh Esen and Owen Hesketh added a fourth and fifth in the second 45. Collins has praised his side for their approach to the game, while also singling out the performances of Farmer, Nathan Fraser and Esen.
On the performance
“I would’ve liked us to play a bit more football when we were in control later in the game. When they were three down at half-time, like we were last week at their place, they were pressurising us to play round them a bit more as opposed to going up to the front.
“To approach the game like we did tonight, and we did it at Tottenham as well with real intensity, we did the same tonight.
“That’s what you get from it – you force the opponents into mistakes and then I thought we were ruthless with our finishing tonight, which we haven’t been of late. It was a brilliant performance and a good 5-0 win.”
On doing the other side of the game
“It’s really hard to get young academy players to understand that football isn’t just about skills and playing nice football.
“Our work out of possession was outstanding, probably better than our work in possession. Because we did it so well, we created lots of chances from winning the ball back off our opponents.
“Our finishing was very good tonight, we scored from a set piece which is nice and everything fell into place.”
On Owen Farmer’s hat-trick
“That’s what he’s got, that’s what he’s capable of – he can finish. He’s sharp, bright, intelligent and can use both feet.
“He’s got a bright future ahead of him and I thought he was excellent tonight. He kept the ball better than he’s done recently, his defending was good and his work off the ball was good.
“That led to chances with the ball and he took his chances very well.”
On Nathan Fraser’s display
“That’s as well as he’s done for a long, long while. He works so hard every week and he’s a big asset to the team.
“My criticism of him lately has been his quality, which hasn’t been as high as it needs to be and he knows that.
“I thought tonight his quality was much, much better. He always competes but I thought his first touch was much better tonight which allowed others to play around him and off him. His performance was excellent.”
On Josh Esen deserving a start
“He deserved a start tonight and we needed to freshen it up. Even before we got told we had Boubacar (Traore) for 45 minutes, I was going to make some changes because we had a tough game on Friday.
“I thought Josh deserved an opportunity and he’s been training really well. One thing Josh has got is he can finish, he can score goals – and we haven’t scored many this year.
“I thought he would add to our goal threat and he did. It took him until the second half, but it was a super finish.”
On a pleasing Easter weekend
“We’re delighted. It was a tough game away in Colchester, which was a long trip on Friday. To then back it up on Monday with a performance like that shows the spirit the boys have, the drive and determination to stay in the division.
“I keep saying it isn’t the be all and end all, but when you’re in it and one of the players, you’ve got pride and you want to stay in the division.
“You want to stay in the top league and what they’ve shown over this weekend shows how much they want to stay in it. We’ve given ourselves a fighting chance now.”
