Wolves secured a much-needed 2-1 victory over Luton Town this afternoon and Gary O’Neil believes two players made the ‘difference’.
Wolves arrived into their match against Luton at Molineux six matches without a win.
Gary O’Neil ordered his players to improve on their performance against Bournemouth by responding at home to the Hatters.
Having watched Rob Edwards’ side concede five goals in each of their last two games, he knew there were frailties to exploit defensively.
The Old Gold, however, have struggled to find the net recently due to a pile-up of injury troubles, scoring four in their last six outings.
Luckily, O’Neil saw Matheus Cunha return to the starting XI after coming off the bench against Bournemouth and the Brazilian set Hwang Hee-Chan away to open the scoring inside 39 minutes.
Wolves then doubled their lead at the start of the second half as Mario Lemina assisted Toti Gomes who scored a diving header.
After the game, O’Neil said the scoreline didn’t tell the full story as Luton grabbed a late consolation through Carlton Morris, but he did praise two of his players.
Gary O’Neil lauds Matheus Cunha and Hwang Hee-Chan for making a ‘difference’ v Luton
Wolves’ injury troubles since the turn of the year have been well-documented, and it’s in attack where the Old Gold have been hurt the most.
Going long spells without the likes of Pedro Neto, Jean-Ricner Bellerde, Cunha and Hwang have caused them serious struggles, with O’Neil forced into fielding academy graduates Nathan Fraser, Leon Chiwome and Tawanda Chirewa.
Fortunately, the 40-year-old is starting to get his key attacking players back as Cunha and Hwang started a Premier League game together for the first time since December 30.
Having watched the Brazilian assist the South Korean for his 11th top-flight goal this term, O’Neil spoke about how having them in the starting XI made a ‘difference’.
Speaking to BBC Match of the Day post-match, he said: “It’s amazing the difference having a couple of attackers makes to us. It is the first time since 30 December that we have been able to name Hwang [Hee-chan] and [Matheus] Cunha in the same team. We’ve had a tough spell without them, although they aren’t fully fit at this moment they are big for the group.
“We’ve got a talented group but it’s difficult to always be a threat without attackers. We can have the ball, think back to West Ham when we dominated possession, but we can’t always make it count without the right attackers.”
Cunha and Hwang are key to a strong end of the season
It’s amazing what a difference having some attacking talent at the top end of the pitch makes to the belief of a squad.
Wolves arrived into this game knowing they’ve got the quality to hurt their opponent, as Cunha and Hwang combined for the first goal.
It’s equally remarkable that the pair haven’t started together since December, which speaks volumes of the issues they’ve had to contend with.
The Molineux faithful were treated to some excellent attacking football today and hopefully, the returning attacking duo hold the key to a strong finish this term.
