Mateus Mane is hoping to impress new head coach Rob Edwards after earning more minutes on the pitch last time out against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The promising young forward made an encouraging second senior appearance when he came off the bench for the final 20 minutes in west London, in a game which saw Wolves led by under-21 head coach James Collins and under-18 head coach Rich Walker.
After working closely with both Collins and Walker in his time in gold and black, Mane is now developing under former Academy coach Edwards, and he believes the history the new head coach has of coaching youth players who go on to play for the first-team will benefit him this season.
On his cameo against Chelsea
“It felt good to have coaches that I’ve worked with before, like James and Rich. I worked with Rich last season for the 18s and then worked with James now this season for the 21s.
“They know me well. They know what I can do. Having them down with the first-team, knowing that they trusted me to go out at Stamford Bridge and play against Chelsea, that has helped me and has given me more confidence.”
On hoping to progress under Edwards
“It's 100% made me want more. I want to get more minutes and show the coach, the staff, the fans and everyone what I can do, what I can bring to the team and that I can help the team as well.
“To know that he’s worked with young players here that would have got their belief from him, it’s given me more confidence to go out and train hard and train well every day, try to do my best, and hopefully I get my chance and I can show him what I can do as well.”
On a first few days under the new head coach
“It’s been going good. He really wants us to push. He likes hard workers, he wants us to run, have more intensity on and off the ball.
“He’s been really pushing the team to try to get the best out of us, so it’s been good having him here.”
On keeping the belief
“I feel like after every game, even if it doesn’t go our way, everyone is still helping each other and saying, ‘keep going, we’ve got this, keep our heads up’. Everyone’s been motivating each other, even in training, everyone’s still pushing 100% every day because we’re all just trying to get better.
“We’re all very confident. I feel like we can turn it around, I feel like everyone believes we can turn it around, but we’ve just got to show it.
“We also need to have the fans helping us and giving us support all the way through, even if it doesn’t go our way, but we can turn it around. 100%.”
On coming together as a club
“I feel like we need to work together again. Get back together, connect as a team, try to score more goals, because you don’t win games without scoring goals. If we can score goals and finish games strong, then we can get that win.
“We will need the home support against Crystal Palace this week. Everyone wants to show what we can do and hopefully we can try to get a win and the fans can help us with that.
“We know that if we can try our best to win and keep winning, the fans will get behind us, so we’ll try to keep winning.”
