After going down a man and a goal down, Wolves showed great character in the second half to rescue a draw and take the game to a replay.
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Wolverhampton Wanderers had to dig deep to rescue a draw away to Brentford in an FA Cup contest. It is not an easy place to visit for many sides, as clubs have struggled to maintain their high standards in this ground. For Wolves though the task became extra harder after getting Joao Gomes sent off in the early stages of the match. After going down a man and a goal down, Wolves showed great character in the second half to rescue a draw and take the game to a replay.
Gary O’Neil was understandably happy with the fight shown by Wolverhampton Wanderers, as he discussed the red card which was issued to Joao Gomes. “I could see it and I know Joao so it’s difficult for me to disconnect myself from knowing what Joao is and how honest he is and he wouldn’t do anything like that on purpose. But when you look at the incident in slow motion, I understand that it probably doesn’t look great, so I can accept it,” O’Neil, quoted on the club’s website, said after the FA Cup match.
He added: “I find it staggering that they haven’t had one or two sent off. I thought the tackle on Tommy Doyle on the far touchline was straight leg, over the ball, straight down on Tommy’s leg with studs – I thought that was equally as bad as Joaos, and then grabbing Nelson round the throat at the end, my bench were making the normal noises when they saw it. I said, ‘It’s alright, VAR will definitely send him off. It’s definitely a sending off.’ But oh no, it’s just a yellow for Lewis-Potter and Nelson can also have a yellow. I was really surprised, but I just deal with my group and what we have.”
The Wolves manager found plenty of positives from the FA Cup fixture against Brentford, including the fightback shown by his players despite going a man down pretty early in the game. “I’m really pleased. It was probably longer than 80 minutes with all the stoppage time at the end of each half, so closer to 90, so it was an incredible effort from the players. I didn’t think there was much between the teams, even with 10 v 11,” he explained.
The manager added: “Obviously, they had more of the ball and more of the territory, but we defended the goal really well, coped with leaving their extra man, and I thought tactically, the players dealt with it really well. We still looked a threat on the counter and there was a real togetherness in the group. Going 1-0 down with 10 men, especially with the nature of the goal, there was nothing in the goal, pinballing around in the penalty area, and a real blow to go 1-0 down at that part. So, to put in the second half performance that they did and keep us in the hat was really impressive and a real team performance.”
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