Interview: Conor Coady wants to create Wolves history

But only one man in Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad has previously played in an FA Cup semi-final.

Skipper Conor Coady was a 22-year-old central midfielder when his Sheffield United team, then in League One, faced Premier League Hull City at Wembley in 2014.

A madcap game finished 5-3 to Hull, who went on to almost shock Arsenal in the final.

But Coady has regrets from that game that he doesn’t want to repeat on Sunday.

“It was a special day.,” he said “No-one expected much of us because we were a League One club.

“We went in at half-time 2-1 up and we were sat in the changing room – at the time if we’d have got in the final against Arsenal, the finalists would have got into Europe.

“So a League One club in Europe? We were sat there having a bit of a laugh about it!

“We were really close to doing it. It was horrible to lose, we were that close. There was a big gulf between the sides, Hull were in the Premier League. We need to make sure we don’t have those same regrets on Sunday.

“If I had any advice from that game for us it would be ‘play like we do’.

“We know it’s a big game and what’s at stake, but like we did against Manchester United in the quarters we need to just play a game of football. We’re not a team full of young boys who’ve never played in games like this before.

“We’re ready for it.”

They certainly are, particularly Coady whose evolution since that semi-final five years ago has been one of Wolves’ great success stories in their rise from Championship also-rans to being on the verge of winning the club’s first major trophy in 39 years.

When Coady arrived from Huddersfield in 2015 he was regarded as a tough-tackling all-action midfielder.

Four years later he’s evolved into a ball-playing centre-half and one of the most revered captains seen at Molineux in decades.

“You can’t compare (then to now), it’s like night and day,” Coady said. “Since the manager’s come in it’s been absolutely fantastic.

“It wasn’t on a downer in 2015 because they’d just missed out on the play-offs the year before. I knew how big the club was and how well supported it was, which was a big part in me coming here.

“It just needed someone like the manager and his staff to come in and really change the direction of it. That’s what they’ve done.”

Ah yes, Nuno. The man who instigated Coady’s maverick switch to centre-half.

Since then the former Liverpool academy youngster’s career has gone on an almost constant upward trajectory.

Along with Danny Batth he captained Wolves to the Championship title. And as the Premier League season has gone on his form his been notably and impressively consistent, leading to loud calls for him to earn international recognition.

Coady has, remarkably, played every single minute of Wolves’ past 58 league and cup games, dating back 15 months to January 2017 when he sat out an FA Cup defeat at Swansea – Wolves’ last defeat in the competition, of course. The self-effacing Coady never talks up his own individual achievements.

But he’s more than happy to wax lyrical over the man who’s tutored him into becoming a top flight centre-half. “He makes you feel like you can win every single football match you play in,” Coady says of his boss.

“And he makes things sound so, so simple.

“He doesn’t have to over-elaborate on things. You get what he’s trying to say, first time.

“It’s his man management. We’ve got a really small squad but we all know each other’s roles inside out. He’s a major part of that, talking to us individually.

“He’s brought his own ideas in. You listen to that on a daily basis and they’re brilliant.”

Another key figure in Wolves’ success this season has been Nuno’s compatriot Joao Moutinho.

The wily, experienced 32-year-old has added class and guile to a midfield that wasn’t exactly short of it with Ruben Neves in situ.

Like Coady, Moutinho has featured in every Premier League game so far this season and also been a pivotal figure in Wolves’ FA Cup run. Coady said anticipation and excitement among the players was palpable when Wolves swooped to sign Moutinho for just £5million from Monaco last summer.

And the midfielder has more than lived up to his reputation.

“He’s special,” Coady enthused. “We’re very lucky to have him. We knew the calibre of him coming in at the start of the season, we were all excited to work with him.

“He’s a European champion. You see his experience and how he can dictate things but his experience in the changing room.

“What he’s brought, professionalism, it’s absolutely fantastic.

“We were all looking forward to playing with him but seeing it first hand is something else.

“What he’s done in the last year, he can control a game and dictate a game.

“We’re made up to have him here.”

It was obvious to Coady from day one how special Moutinho was.

“His first training session, he came out and trained without his laces done up, which I found unbelievable. It’s like he’s got slippers on.

“That’s just him, he’s quite laid back.

“He does things in training you wouldn’t believe.

“We’re quite a young team, to have that experience is really important. As a football player, he manipulates the ball. And for me, playing behind him, it’s how he controls a game. He’s not a winger who’s got all the skill in the world. He just controls a game.”

Moutinho has brought experience and professionalism, yes, but has also adopted the role of the changing room joker.

“He’s like a kid!” Coady revealed.

“He’s always messing around. Him and young Ruben Vinagre are like father and son. He looks after Vinagre, they were at Monaco. He looks after him but he absolutely batters him as well! Moutinho doesn’t have a nickname, you can’t call him one, what he’s done in his career, you’re joking aren’t you! He’s just Joao.”

Watford stand in the way of Wolves reaching their first FA Cup final since 1960.

The Hornets, like Wolves, have enjoyed an impressive Premier League campaign, earning plaudits up and down the land.

They also handed Wolves a convincing defeat back in October, winning 2-0 at Molineux on a day that Abdoulaye Doucoure and Etienne Capoue dominated Nuno’s team in midfield.

A couple of months after that Wolves switched formation to 3-5-2 and Coady is expecting a different game at Wembley tomorrow, although he does count that Watford defeat as the toughest game of Wolves’ season so far. “We’ve evolved since then,” he said. “We look at ourselves each and every day.

“When we played them it was our toughest game this year. They came with a game plan, it was early in the season and we knew we needed to improve. The way they played it was really tough. We know what to expect but we’ll be ready.

“They’ll want to win it as much as us but we’re focusing on ourselves. We need to be ready for the battle. It’s two good teams going against each other. Watford have done fantastically well this year.”

Watford’s Troy Deeney has played down the occasion, but Coady does not agree. “No matter what you say it’s the semi-final of the FA Cup, it’s a huge game and everyone wants to play in it,” he said. “We’ve detected the buzz all season. From the get-go, when we played Liverpool (in the third round) we wanted to do well in the competition.”

Much has been made of Wolves’ small squad but he believes that’s helped when it’s come to the FA Cup, with players slotting in seamlessly if Nuno has made changes.

“We’ve not got the biggest of squads, we’ve got a winning mentality that we want to win every game no matter what the competition,” he added. “We look at every game the same.”

‘Make sure people remember us’ was the message from captain Coady when he spoke to the players before the unforgettable 2-1 victory over Manchester United in the quarter-finals, which he calls the best win of his career so far.

“(I told the boys to) make history, make sure this team doesn’t go unnoticed,” he said after that game. “(I said) players come and go, we’ll come and go, more players will come in – but make sure people remember this team.”

It’s clear he takes his role as a captain, an organiser, a leader and a motivator very seriously.

“You try and replicate what the manager’s said in the week,” Coady said of his galvanising pre-kick off final words. In terms of the huddle it’s about talking in terms of what we can do.

“That’s where we’re at, make history.

“If we can do that it’ll be special.”