Tribal Football

Wolves boss O'Neil happy with victory over West Ham; seeks more from 2-goal Gomes

Paul Vegas
Wolves boss O'Neil happy with victory over West Ham; seeks more from 2-goal Gomes
Wolves boss O'Neil happy with victory over West Ham; seeks more from 2-goal GomesAction Plus
Wolves boss Gary O'Neil was pleased with their preseason friendly win against West Ham in Jacksonville.

Matheus Cunha, who was forced off with a knee strain, struck, along with Rodrigo Gomes, who scored twice.

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O'Neil later said, “It was a good evening. The performance was excellent, I thought we were dominant, good with the ball, good without the ball. The centre backs did well in the four, moving away from the five we were a lot last year. We coped well, so pleased. A good outing for us. I said to the players that I’m really proud because they’ve worked so hard for three weeks and to see it come together this evening was pleasant.

“We’ve worked hard, so to see a lot of it come out was pleasing. Of course, there are false positives in there because West Ham won’t have prepared it like a real game and won’t have seen us like that before. It’ll be much tougher than that once teams know what we’re doing, but a great start point.”

On the two hour delay due to bad weather, he said: “As it got to 8.15pm, I started to get doubtful. I was disappointed because we planned the week really well around everyone’s minutes and what tomorrow looks like, and what Crystal Palace is going to look like. So, it would have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works, but thankfully the storm passed, and we were able to play. Then the lads did really well, and the pitch held up well – I was thankful we could get it on because now the week can go as we planned it.”

On two-goal Gomes, he added: “He arrives at the back post really well because he works so hard. No matter how far he’s got to make up, he always arrives at the back post. There was bits of his game I thought he could do better with tonight, certain moments he’s been better on the ball in training than he was today, but obviously it’s a great start for him.

"To join a new team and get two goals in his first proper game was nice for him. Not getting carried away – there’s loads of stuff I still want to improve and help him with.”