Express & Star

Conor Coady says players must keep up at Wolves

Conor Coady says the players must keep up with the pace of change at ambitious Wolves – as they set about returning to winning ways tomorrow.

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Conor Coady (© AMA SPORTS PHOTO AGENCY)

Seventh-placed Wolves are chasing European football either via the league or perhaps even an FA Cup triumph.

Two years ago Wolves were 20th in the Championship, with Coady playing at right-back.

And the captain, speaking about the club’s exciting plans to expand Molineux in the coming years, said: “You read the plans and listen to the owners all the time speaking about ambition and what they want to do with the club.

“We see the same things everybody else does and it’s an exciting time, it really is.

“We need to make sure as players we’re helping the club move forward and we’re part of helping it grow.

“It’s an exciting time for everybody, not just me, to be part of this football club at the minute.

“Since (Nuno) has come in, he’s taken the club in a totally different direction – him and all his staff, they’ve been remarkable since they came in in terms of how they’ve got us playing, the identity they’ve brought to the football club.

“Everybody’s listening and learning because they know all of his ideas are really good.”

Coady, who turned 26 this week, recently penned a new contract to keep him at the club until 2023.

It’s been a remarkable rise for the former Liverpool man who has become a central figure in the new Wolves era.

He’s looking forward to returning to Molineux tomorrow after three successive away games.

“You feel the history (at Molineux),” he said. “We’ve not played there for a few weeks and you miss it, you miss playing at home, the buzz of your own supporters being behind you because when Molineux gets going it’s rocking.

“It’s an intimidating place to play for opposition teams. To play there is a fantastic thing for all of us.”

Wolves have scored a few last-minute winners this season, but they were on the wrong end of one on Tuesday when Steve Mounie’s 91st-minute strike earned Huddersfield all three points.

It continued a trend of enduring poor results against teams in the lower reaches of the Premier League table.

“I can’t really explain it,” Coady, echoing his head coach’s post-match thoughts, said.

“We don’t look at those games and think we shouldn’t go in feeling a certain way.

“We went into Tuesday night full of confidence. It wasn’t a good game and Huddersfield ended up nicking it. We need to learn from that.

“I’ve played against a lot of the Cardiff boys before and they’re fantastic players.

“I think what they’ve done, getting promoted last year and what they’ve done this year has been really good.

“They’ve got a brilliant manager who has them playing a certain way which is really tough to play against.

“You have to prepare right because they can cause you trouble.

“We’ve looked at them, we’re prepared and we’ll make sure we do it right.

“Never looking far ahead is what’s brought success in the past couple of years in terms of taking it one game at a time.

“Cardiff is a big game for us.”