O´Neil: Pressure has given Wolves ´opportunity´ to shine

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil believes his players are beginning to see a deserved reward for their hard work after a difficult start to the Premier League season.

Matheus Cunha’s double caught the eye in their 4-1 win against Fulham, alongside goals from Joao Gomes and substitute Goncalo Guedes, as Wolves showed their attacking quality in equal measure to ease some of the tension surrounding O’Neil.

The opening months of the 2024-25 campaign have caused pressure to rise on O’Neil’s position after they claimed just one point in their first eight games.

They have now claimed eight points in their last four league games and climbed out of the relegation zone for the first time this season with their victory at Craven Cottage.

O’Neil praised his players at full-time, referencing the battling qualities shown by the squad after key summer exits, and a run of form that could have seen them lose faith in him.

“It’s probably one of my favourite performances in my time here as a coach. We knew this was going to be a really tough test with the players we were missing,” he told BBC Sport.

@mathcunha20 pic.twitter.com/cqvlzSRjs8

— Wolves (@Wolves) November 23, 2024

“It’s been a tough run overall, and we had a tough transfer window. Any team who loses its captain and one of its top players will always have to find a new way to do things in the following season.

“We were given a tough fixture list to start the season with, and the league position brings with it pressure and noise, and that was for us to deal with.

“That pressure also brought an opportunity for us to stand up and show who we are and every single one of them have done just that. We can enjoy this win, but there is still plenty of work to do.”

Meanwhile, Fulham have lost three of their last six Premier League games (W2 D1), as many as in their previous 12 games in the competition (W5 D4).

Despite matching Wolves’ 10 shots, and creating a similar expected goals (1.01 to Wolves’ 1.26), Fulham struggled against their clinical opponents, especially while playing with 10 men following Joachim Andersen’s injury, with no substitutions left.

“It was really weird game. That’s the Premier League,” Marco Silva told BBC Match of the Day. “It’s easy for us to say we were really unfortunate. It was a situation [where we had to] play with 10 men without a red card.

“We can’t just be looking at the score. The two goals when we were with 10 men didn’t reflect the game, in my opinion.”