Express & Star

Wolves goalscorer identifies difference to last season and calls for focus

Pablo Sarabia believes Wolves must keep their focus if they want to maintain their European charge.

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Celebration time for Pablo Sarabia

The midfielder’s winner in Sunday’s 1-0 victory over Sheffield United moved Wolves just a point behind the top seven.

They also host Brighton in the FA Cup fifth round tomorrow and Sarabia knows they cannot afford to slip in the race for Europe.

“We can’t think about that. We just think about continuing as a team and taking it game by game,” he said. “It’s been a very good season for the team and the targets were different at the beginning of the season, and now it’s true, and it’s amazing for us as we can continue to enjoy where we are in the table now.

“I’m enjoying this season a lot. It was very difficult for me when I first arrived here, because the Premier League was very different and more difficult than the other leagues.

“I continued to adapt but now I am enjoying it a lot and much more than last season.”

Meanwhile, Wolves had a scare during the warm-ups on Sunday, when Hwang Hee-chan went down holding his knee and seemed to be in some discomfort. After being seen by the medics the forward started the game and played 86 minutes.

“He stood on the ball and rocked his knee a little bit,” head coach Gary O’Neil said. “He’s fine now and can’t feel a thing. No pain at all, so it was probably a bit of a shock for him with a big game coming up and feeling some pain in his knee at that time.

“But he’s absolutely fine. No problem. He’s important for us with his runs in behind and we’ve missed that.

“He got tired and didn’t look as much of a threat in behind in the second half, but in the first half he gave us a good outlet.”

Defeat kept Sheffield United bottom, 11 points from safety, and they also had Jack Robinson and Vini Souza fighting each other in the first half.

Striker Rhian Brewster had two of United’s best chances but they slipped to a 19th defeat in 26 top-flight games.

Brewster made just his third start of the season as he looks for his first goal since October 2022.

“Injuries have happened and obviously it’s part of the game but I have full belief in myself and that I can get back to scoring goals and doing what I came here to do,” he said. “It’s just proving to myself every game that I can keep going and keep going. Even in training when you’re doing extra runs and stuff, push yourself to the limit. I’m just going to keep going and keep going.”