Wolves boss Gary O’Neil felt his team were close to their maximum during their 2-1 defeat to the Blues at Molineux, which he admits is a damning verdict on Wanderers, whose goalscorer Matheus Cunha looks set to be charged by the FA for clashing with a member of Town’s security staff after the final whistle.
Matt Doherty’s own goal gave the Blues the lead in the first half, Wanderers top scorer Cunha levelled 18 minutes from time but Jack Taylor won it for Town with a header in the fifth minute of injury time.
"That group was close to the maximum today,” O'Neil said at his press conference having kept reporters waiting for more than an hour after the end of the match.
"But the really damning verdict is when we are close to maximum, we’re still not able to come out on top in a game that we should have come out on top of easily because of two really basic goals.
"We need to be really honest with where we are because you either find a way to be good enough or you get replaced. That goes for me, that goes for the players. That’s the nature of the business, it is a very competitive industry, especially at Premier League level.
"And change will come if you constantly keep falling below the level, which we have in two key areas. It’s really difficult for me to protect them from that.
"I can protect them from a lot with a game plan but that wasn’t a problem today. It was similar to Everton, where Jordan Pickford’s going to boot it to Dominic Calvert-Lewin. And against Ipswich, Dara O’Shea’s going to boot it to Delap, and until you can cope with that it’s very difficult for you to win a football match.
He added: "The first goal is unacceptable for Premier League level. We saw Liam Delap score that goal a lot when he was playing kids two foot smaller than him, he looked like he was playing two years up bashing people out the way and running through. It’s not acceptable to concede that goal, Delap won’t score that against any other Premier League team.”
Regarding the winning goal, O’Neil said his players had swapped who was marking whom.
"Two areas we’ve suffered massively with this season, direct play and balls in the box,” he continued. "The set play goal I will happily take responsibility for if the players were stood in the right place, but for some reason two of them have decided to change roles very late on in the game.
"I’m 100 per cent confident that if we were stood in the right spot, our player goes and heads that way. That’s the players’ decision making under stress - players change things around and try and find fixes all the time - but that was a really poor decision from them in a really important moment.”
Wolves were booed off at the end of each half and O’Neil’s job appears to be hanging by a thread.
"You either find a way to be good enough or you get replaced,” he reflected. "That goes for me and the players. It's the nature of the business. It's a very competitive industry. Change will come if you constantly keep falling below the level.
"I'm not interested in my own position. I know the work I do every day and I know the situation we are in.I know getting this group to perform the way they did took a lot of work. People can point the finger at me but some of the responsibility has to land on the players.
"I'm comfortable with myself as a coach, my standards and what I ask of the group. I also embrace this difficult moment. That group downstairs needs me this week to help get them into a place where they are ready to go. I will keep fighting for them and with them until I'm told not to.
"It doesn't mean I don't think I'm going to get sacked. For every [poor] result which comes the chances of me losing my job heightens. It doesn't concern me, the situation drives me to want to do better.”
There were angry scenes at the final whistle as Wolves players clashed with Town staff with Rayan Ait-Nouri shown a second yellow card in the tunnel having been carried off the pitch. Town’s Liam Delap was booked for his part in the melee and will now miss next week’s game against Newcastle.
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Cuhna avoided censure at the time but was pictured attacking a member of Town’s security detail.
The incident was the second involving Wolves players in a week with Mario Lemina stripped of the captaincy following a clash with Jarred Bowen after the 2-1 defeat at West Ham on Monday.
"When the players step out of line they are heavily punished by me,” O’Neil added regarding the Ait-Nouri incident.
"Rayan will know how I feel already because getting a second yellow card and being unavailable for next week can have catastrophic consequences.
"However much stress we are under, we need to keep control. I didn't see what it was for.
"We deal with things like that very seriously as you saw last week. It’s annoying. The players need to understand the importance of making good decisions under pressure. We have enough to do or enough to fix without dealing with this.”
Cunha, whose goal was his eighth of the season, seems set for FA action with former Premier League official Mike Dean telling Sky Sports: "I’ve watched the footage back afterwards. He elbows the back of the head of one of the Ipswich coaches [sic]. Then he pulls his glasses off and throws them to the pitch. For me, I think he’ll be in trouble with the FA.”