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‘Failed to cope under pressure’ – Gary O’Neil reflects as Wolves go bottom after defeat to Villa

‘We failed to cope under pressure’ – Gary O’Neil reflects as Wolves go bottom after a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday.

Wolves went in front on 25 minutes thanks to Matheus Cunha’s strike, and it was again a really positive first half performance for them. So good that Wolves fans cheekily started singing “Champions League? You’re having a laugh”.

But it was the hosts that were left laughing come full time. Wolves led up until the 73rd minute, then came three Aston Villa goals in the final 13 minutes.

Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Jhon Duran getting on the scoresheet to help Villa go level on points (12) with Liverpool and Man City at the top of the Premier League. Wolves meanwhile are 20th with just the single point after 5 games played.

Player ratings (per Sky Sports)

Aston Villa: Martinez (7), Konsa (7), Carlos (5), Torres (6), Digne (6), Tielemans (6), Onana (7), McGinn (6), Ramsey (6), Rogers (7), Watkins (7).

Subs: Bailey (7), Maatsen (7), Duran (8), Barkley (7), Buendia (n/a).

Wolves: Johnstone (7), Semedo (6), Mosquera (7), Dawson (6), Ait-Nouri (7), Andre (7), Bellegarde (7), J Gomes (6), Lemina (7), Cunha (8), Strand Larsen (6).

Subs: Guedes (6), R Gomes (5), Bueno, Doyle (n/a).

Player of the Match: Jhon Duran.

Wolves manager Gary O’Neil to Sky Sports: “We failed to cope when we came under pressure which is obviously going to come away from home, at Aston Villa when you’re 1-0 up.

“The pressure was always going to arrive, there are some key moments in the second half around winning tackles and stopping crosses which end up costing you.

“The game goes away from you at 2-1, then it felt like it got away from the boys fairly quickly when there wasn’t an onslaught on the goal.

“There were a couple of situations where you have to do better if you want to compete with Aston Villa.”

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil, speaking to Match of the Day: “The first half we played very well. No team comes here and wins at a canter. It was not like they were banging the door down. But when we need to fight we need to do it better. The lads are finding out the hard way you cannot play well for a bit.

“It’s disappointing we have come up short. That [second] goal has to be stopped as does the first goal. We need to make sure the fixtures, we have some really tough ones coming up, we need to find a way to fight and scrap.

“We’re not going to dominate games against Aston Villa and Liverpool. We need to behave and act like a team scrapping for everything. We have to make sure we are better when it gets tough.”

On the injury to Yerson Mosquera, who was carried off on a stretcher: “It doesn’t look good at this moment. It’s a big blow for us.”

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery, speaking to BBC MOTD: “We want to win matches easier than we did. We are showing how difficult it is to win in the Premier League – last week against Everton [0-2 to win 3-2].

“We were suffering in the first half but the second half was completely different. I am very happy because we won. It was very important we changed our energy and we played to win in the second half.”

On Jhon Duran: “Good impact again. The most important thing is we won. We will need all the players in the matches we play in the next few weeks.”

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery to Sky Sports: “Clearly it was two different halves. The first half was so, so poor. W didn’t manage to impose the plan we were trying to implement on the pitch.

“They were better than us and deserved to score and would have deserved more.

“We wanted to change things to get more energy with some fresh players, and explain we needed to push more and take some risks to push them back, and win possession back more quickly.

“We controlled the match better from there, created the chances and deserved to win in the end.”

Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa, speaking to MOTD: “It shows the character and the togetherness we have here [to come from behind and win]. We knew we were not good enough in the first half. We came out firing in the second half and punished them.”

On substitute Jhon Duran scoring again: “He’s a big talent. We see it every day in training. It’s important for him to stay humble and we’ll help him do that. He’s still young.”

On the tribute to Gary Shaw: “It’s been an emotional week for us with the passing of Gary Shaw. On Tuesday we wanted to dedicate the win to him. And we wanted to do it today in front of our fans and in front of his family.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Gary O’Neil reflects after Wolves go bottom following defeat to Aston Villa…

@DarrenProsser: If he thinks Fulham , CP and Bournemouth are going to be easy , dream on !

@Lazychris14: 1 win in 16 tuff run my ass

@JonnyQ88: “Where we are as a football club” is another one of those quotes where he doesn’t help himself at all.

@mattwolves_: That’s an awful attitude and mentality from GON. Any game is winnable with the right attitude and Nuno wolves were a different animal and feared no one. Wolves need to pick up points against the top teams. I’m feeling lost 😕

@AlisonLJones: Sorry but this is the Premier League, the fixtures are no surprise and cannot be used as an excuse.

@paulhonved54: Lack of ambition to score a 2nd goal cost us today. The annoying thing is Villa were not better than us, we allowed them in to the game.

@itspolecatime: “Where we’re at”……team full of Internationals including three who play for Brazil… 🤷‍♂️

@corbettrj80: What does he mean ‘where we are as a football club’ we’ve got a team made up of international players. Stop making excuses, in game management is horrendous, regardless of fixtures you have to compete for 90 mins, something we are incapable of doing

@PerrinsR: But it’s not 1pt in 5 is it?.. it’s losing streak from last season!

@AlanDavis1893: This tough run started with the FA cup defeat to Coventry, how many wins has it been in the league since then?

@JakeGorfin: Fuck off Gary

@MarkoutMountain: Man… I like GON, but the games have been there for us. The last two were VERY winnable and the last three saw second half collapses. This isn’t the fixtures. It is depth and coaching.

@markgeveritt: Sorry, but this isn’t a squad that should be anywhere near the bottom 3 even with this opening run of fixtures. To throw away 6 points in the last quarter of the last 2 games isn’t good enough. The players are more than good enough. Starting to think the coaching isn’t #wwfc

@andybullyuk: Where are we at as a football club @Gazoneil? I’m sure a lot of us @Wolves fans would love to know , Best part of £800 for a ST for 1 win in 18 , So go on Gary , Do tell us !

@xGJHP: Yeah a shit Newcastle at home, a tired Villa who played midweek and Forest away? we’re not playing man city away every week mate

@46WVR: Accept your in game management is poor standard at this point In your career. Same mistakes every week.

@gricey88: Bottled it again simple as, you can moan about the fixtures but when your leading in games and end up with 0 points then you have problems elsewhere not just the fixture list

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