Express & Star

Gary O'Neil gives challenge to Wolves players ahead of run-in

Gary O’Neil has challenged his Wolves players not to drop their standards for the season’s run-in.

Published
Last updated
Wolves boss Gary O’Neil (Getty)

A bounce back win over Fulham has taken Wolves to ninth in the Premier League and within touching distance of the European places.

Wolves also face an FA Cup quarter-final this weekend and the head coach has urged his side to keep fighting.

“I’ve spoken to them already – I don’t want the ceiling to come,” O’Neil said. “It’s really easy for us to be on 38 points before the Fulham game, and 38 probably won’t go down. There’s a big Cup game coming so maybe they think this game’s not that important, but it is, they all are.

“We have to fight now. We can wait until we’re in a mess again and wait until we’re fourth from bottom at some point and then start fighting. Or we can continue to fight now and see how high up the league we can finish.

“That’s the challenge to the players. Can we not feel comfortable, can we not drop our level at all and can we keep fighting for every single point and see where we can get to.”

Wolves’ success so far this season has seen them exceed expectations after a difficult pre-season.

But Nelson Semedo has backed the quality in the dressing room and says the team has plenty more to achieve.

Semedo said: “I don’t think we lost quality (in the summer). We lost very good players, they were very good players, but we’ve showed that the players we have here can play very good football.

“We’re winning a lot of matches, we’ve been practising a lot and Gary O’Neil has brought a good style of football as well. So, we’re doing well, but we’ve got to go game by game.

“Of course, we’re now on 41 points but we still have a lot more to achieve, so we have to keep going.”

n Money talk: See Page 44