Team spirit taking Wolves far this season

With a FA Cup quarter-final coming up and Wolves still in hunt for a European place, supporters are excited at the season’s possibilities.

But the head coach has masterminded this success with a small squad that has suffered some key injuries, as Matheus Cunha and Hwang Hee-chan remain sidelined.

The remedy to that has been the ability of several players to fill in at different positions and O’Neil believes that is down to ethos instilled in the side.

“Sometimes when you’re asked to play out of position and your individual performance isn’t quite as high as it would be normally, it can be frustrating for you and you feel like the manager’s sold you out to cover up the holes we have in the team,” he said. “But they all understand how important it is that the team functions.

“Mario never has any problem when we move him around and Pedro the same. He knows what I think of him and how much I know about him.

“I know what his best position is and where he does his best work. He also knows if I have the opportunity, he will play in that position.

“But the team is always the most important, which the lads have really bought into.

“They have no problem with being moved around and giving everything they can.”

Having such a small squad does have some advantages however, as every senior player remains close to the action and can be called upon when needed.

As it has been for most of the season, O’Neil’s biggest challenge is filling the number nine void.

It is a challenge he is relishing as excitement builds over how far this Wolves group can go this season.

“Everybody’s involved, everybody’s really close to playing and everybody’s important,” O’Neil added. “The area of the pitch we have the injuries is probably the area that we have the least cover in. If we lost a midfielder or left-back for instance, we’d have cover.

“That area of the pitch has been the most challenging for us and unfortunately that’s where we’ve managed to collect the injuries.

“But, as everyone keeps reminding me, we’ve found solutions so far and I’m desperate to make sure the group can find solutions again.

“We’ve worked so hard to get ourselves in this position that I’m really looking forward to seeing how far we can push it and how far the group want to go.

“I know the fans are probably enjoying it and looking forward to the last 12 weeks or so. Let see what we can do.

“We’ll give it everything we can, try and finish as high up in the league and get as far as we can in the FA Cup.”