James Collins felt his side were unfortunate to lose at Fulham, but was encouraged by a strong performance against a team who moved up to fourth in the PL2 table with victory.
Wolves under-21s were a goal down at the break, but a much-improved second 45 saw them deservedly level through Owen Hesketh before the home side won against the run of play it in the 77th minute. Head coach Collins suggested post-match that a point at the very minimum would have been just reward for an ‘excellent’ display against the Cottagers.
On the 90 minutes
“I felt we were the better team. After a slow start in the first few minutes, we got ourselves into the game and limited their chances.
“They get a lot of goals and a lot of chances, and we limited their chances very well. They had the one breakaway in the first half, but we didn’t have many chances in the first half.
“In the second half we pressed a lot better and played a little bit more realistic football – getting the ball wide, getting crosses in the box, playing our football in the other half and playing some good football.
“We had some chances. We hit the bar, we scored and I thought when we equalised, there was only going to be one team who would win the game.
“They can be pleased with their performance but they defended for 35 to 40 minutes of the second half and we defended for five. We conceded in that five minutes of defending, so we have to do better than that.”
On the performance against a strong team
“I’m delighted with the performance, especially second half – I thought we were excellent. Not many teams come here and shake them like we did.
“Their frontline is an excellent frontline of 20, 21, 22-year-old players and ours are 17, 18, 19. You can see that at times, but we also offered a real threat and caused them a problem.
“I think we deserved a point minimum, possibly three. Instead we’ve come away with nothing.”
On Owen Hesketh playing more advanced
“That’s his best role and best position, if you like. Later on in the game we had to bring him a bit deeper because Harvey (Griffiths) wasn’t going to last the game and we were lucky to have Hodgey for the hour – the first-team and the gaffer were very good with that, but he had to come off after an hour so we had to make changes at that point.
“Owen played higher up and that’s his best role because he scores goals. What he did tonight is what he is.
“He gets frustrated when we aren’t playing perfect football, he likes us to play a perfect style of football and we’d like to too. He’ll have to learn that it’s sometimes getting on the end of crosses, picking up second balls, reading where the ball’s going to drop and creating chances that way. I thought he took his goal very well.”
On deserving points from the game
“It would’ve been nice because we want the points. All we can control is performance and I thought the performance tonight deserved something.
“If that’s the case, we’ve got some good players and that’s what it’s about – trying to produce players.
“It isn’t about league tables, it’s about producing players and producing players for our first-team and also players for loan and to add value to the club.
“Looking out on the pitch tonight, we’ve got players who will do that.”
On young players showing improvement
“They’re improving. They haven’t cracked it, they’re not perfect and they’re very hit and miss.
“In the first half our techniques, at times, weren’t at what I’d like them to be, but we grew into the game and got better.
“They’re all showing enough quality to give us hope. Probably what none of them are quite doing yet is winning and running games for us. I suppose Owen (Farmer) did that the other day for us with his hat-trick, but we’re always pushing them to do more. The young boys are coming in and doing very well.”
