Wolves boss Gary O'Neil lays down demand to players

Injuries to key players and a 3-0 loss to Newcastle have rocked the Wolves camp, after they put themselves in European and FA Cup contention.

Academy stars Nathan Fraser and Tawanda Chirewa came on at St James’ Park, while 15-year-old defender Wes Okoduwa made the bench for the first time.

O’Neil was delighted for the opportunity awarded to that trio, but urged his Wolves side not to settle for what they have and push for a successful end to the season.

“He’s a good player who is physically very, very good,” O’Neil said when asked about Okoduwa.

“He’s not ready for Premier League football, obviously, but he travelled with the squad with the expectation that he would be the extra man and get the experience.

“He trained with the lads (on Friday) and then Joao drops out and he gets the experience of being sub at St James’ Park.

“A great day for him, result aside. I’m sure Nathan loved leading the line away at St James’ Park for 45 minutes and I’m sure Tawanda enjoyed coming on in a Premier League game.

“But, I’m really keen for it not to just end up being about that. It’s lovely and fantastic, but we’ve worked our socks off for six months to get to 38 points and an FA Cup quarter-final.

“We can accept that we’ve done great and we can just enjoy it and see how the kids get on, or we can set the bar higher and keep pushing.

“There’s only one way I’m going to go about it, we have to keep pushing. We can’t accept that it’s a tough spell and we’ll suffer, we have to find a way to keep pushing.”

Wolves have had a remarkable run in recent months and now need to bounce back from defeat when they face Fulham this Saturday – and O’Neil says he has always been aware of how quickly the tide can turn.

“Obviously you hope not and you work as hard as you can every day to make sure it goes well always,” O’Neil added when asked about a potential slump.

“But the history of football tells you that every team will go through a spell, even the best ones. Manchester City and Arsenal have gone through tough spells.

“I never prepare myself for bad runs, but I know what they’re like and I know what it takes to get through them.

“There are contributing factors that you don’t really have control of, with player injuries, which can be tough to deal with.

“I never enjoy the good spells too much because I understand how fine the margins are.

“I know how quickly it can change and how things can start to go against you.

“We work really hard on preparing the players on not responding to results. It’s more about our level and being in control of what we can produce.”