No Excuses

Scott Sellars was left furious as his Under 23s side were comprehensively beaten 5-1 away to Blackburn Rovers on Monday evening at Ewood Park.

Blackburn took the lead in the third minute as Joe Rankin-Costello finishes a rebounded effort. 

 

From there, the visitors didn't look back as Joe Nuttall scored a hat-trick and Lewis Hardcastle put the nail in the Under 23’s coffin to top off a disappointing first game of the Premier League 2 season. 

 

Scott Sellars was brutally honest following the defeat and hinted that there would be changes for next week’s home fixture against Southampton at AFC Telford (7pm).

 

He said, “I think we got what we deserved. I thought we were very poor and every in aspect of our game we were second best. 

 

“Blackburn thoroughly deserved it - they were far sharper, far quicker in everything they did, they had a lot more desire to get the ball back and I thought we were second best all over the pitch.

 

“Probably in my three and a half years of me being here, it’s the worst performance I’ve seen from a Wolves ‘23s team. 

 

“I’m disappointed and quite embarrassed really - that is not good enough for what we expect and there will be changes for our next game. 

 

“Sometimes results can throw up strange ones in the first game of the season - there’s no excuse, we weren't good enough and we got what we deserved. 

 

“We will look at what we did in the week, and we did one or two things a little bit differently for some testing reasons but it’s not an excuse, we just weren't good enough.”

 

Sellars’ side narrowly missed out on promotion during the previous campaign as they suffered late heartbreak in the play-off semi-finals against West Ham in May.

 

The Under 23’s manager is now hoping that his players can prove to him that the opening day defeat was a fluke and they will now prove to him that they want to fight for promotion again this season.

 

“They're young players and they'll have an opportunity to prove that it was a fluke, and that it was a one-off, time will tell on that one,” he continued. 

 

“In terms of us as a team, that isn't good enough - there’s a standard of Wolves football teams which is about hard work, being organised and being together which goes with their talent. 

 

“That’s how we play, and I didn't see any of that against Blackburn. 

 

“We’ll do the same week as we always do but obviously people have got to prove that they want to play. 

 

“I think I have to make changes after that performance - whether it’s to the shape or to people, but nobody said to me today ‘keep me in this side’. 

 

“Probably Will Randall, I thought he was very good, apart from that nobody put anyone under any pressure - some of them were not at the level that we expect.”

 

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