Rob Edwards credited his players after Wolves came from behind to claim at point at Everton, despite not hitting the heights of previous matches.
The Old Gold started slowly at the Hill Dickinson Stadium but improved after the break and earned a point thanks to another fine strike by Mateus Mane.
The result could have been even better, but the Old Gold failed to capitalise on two late Everton red cards, which frustrated the head coach, but he also took heart from the fighting spirit his side are now regularly showing.
On another point on the board
“I was a bit frustrated with our start. The staff sensed in the warm-up that we were a little bit flat. I tried to get into them before the game. I think we started flat and at half-time it was evident we needed to inject a bit of life and something into us.
“I don’t think we were particularly playing poorly, but we didn’t have the same zip we’ve had over the last few games. We weren’t getting behind them enough and didn’t carry enough of a threat. I thought we were playing in front of them and they were happy for us to do that.
“We made a tweak, and I thought it had an effect. We started to get more control and look a bit more dangerous. Once we went to a four and brought Jorgen on, it was an instant impact. It was a brilliant goal and we were pushing. How the game ended, with them down to nine men, it's frustrating because we didn’t capitalise more.”
On not taking advantage of nine men
“I felt we played into their hands a little bit once they went down to nine men. We were probably over keen to either work the perfect cross and not put it in the right positions or putting it in from a bit too deep and didn’t work them enough.
“They’ve got a lot of experienced Everton defenders who are happy defending the box in a block. They can buy a bit of time, they’re happy with balls coming in from certain areas and we probably played into their hands without working them side to side enough. We put Pedro Lima on to go wide with crosses to shift them, but we didn’t quite do it well enough.”
On continuing the run of results
“The performance in the second half I thought was good. We’re up against Everton at home and they’re 1-0 up, it’s a difficult place to come. I thought we were playing pretty well but didn’t necessarily have the same cut and thrust we’ve had in the other games. To take something from it after being 1-0 down means it’s three games in a row we’ve taken points.
“It’s a good chunk of games we’ve had good performances and pretty consistent performances. Tonight, we probably looked a bit jaded. It’s been a busy schedule for the lads, we were asking a lot of them. We had an 18-year-old who looked tired in the first half, Jhon Arias looked tired, so credit to the lads, we’ve got to take positives, because maybe when we’re not at our best, we still took something from the game.”
On the group’s spirit
“I’m pleased that the lads are responding, and we’re seeing performances and fight. We’ve had the time of a pre-season with them and we’re starting to see a lot better performances. There are still a lot of time and a lot of points to play for. It’s a very, very difficult challenge for us, obviously, but we’re going to continue to fight, we have to. We’re all professional, we’re competitive, we want to win games. We’re not going to roll over and we’re going to keep fighting all the way until the end of 38 games, no matter what’s happened. That’s all we can do.”
