Gary O’Neil refuses to accept theory over Wolves win away to ‘tough’ Everton

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Gary O’Neil refused to accept that his side’s win over Everton had extra significance.

O’Neil’s side arrived at Goodison Park without a point to their name, the same as Everton, after defeats to Manchester United and Brighton in their opening two games of the season, while the Blues had been beaten by Fulham and Aston Villa.

However, substitute Sasa Kalajdzic flicked in a late header to give Wolves their first Premier League victory of the season and leave Everton pointless and bottom of the table.

“I think winning Premier League games is big, every single one, especially on the road and especially the first one with a new group,” O’Neil said post-match.

“It’s a tough place to come, but it doesn’t feel big because us and Everton were both on zero, it just felt like a win the boys deserved after the work they have put in over the last 15 days.”

The Wolves boss added: “I thought it was a decently-balanced performance with large spells I didn’t like.

“But I have to remind myself that we have not been here nine months, we have been here 15 days, and there will be spells where it doesn’t quite look like what you want.”

However, Wolves returned to the Midlands as a result of some superb goalkeeping from Jose Sa, who produced a number of top stops throughout the 90 minutes, with the pick of the bunch arriving in the second half when he somehow kept out a header by Abdoulaye Doucoure.

Reflecting on his goalkeeper’s performance, O’Neil said: “Sa made a big save when we were in the ascendency as well, they managed to break away, and he made a great save.

“It would have knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit if we’d have conceded while on top. It was a big save.”

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Wolverhampton Wanderers edged past Everton to secure their first win of the 2023-24 campaign on Saturday, capitalizing on a late opportunity at Goodison Park in Liverpool after Hwang Hee-chan left the pitch with a possible hamstring injury.

The win, which came thanks to an 87th-minute effort from substitute Sasa Kalajdzic, is great news for the midlands club, but it’s more of an indictment of Everton’s performance this season than any indication that things might get better for Wolves.

Everton are now without a single point in their opening three games for the first time in more than 30 years, but it gets worse — the Toffees have not scored a single goal in those three games for the first time ever.

Wolves were not really in much better shape prior to Saturday’s game. They lost their opening 1-0 to Manchester United and then managed just a single goal — scored by Korean midfielder Hwang Hee-chan — during a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Brighton last week.

Hwang started on Saturday but did not make it past the halfway mark after coming down hard from a Nathan Patterson shortly before the break. Speaking after the game, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil confirmed that Hwang was pulled because of concerns of a potential hamstring injury, but did not give any indication of how bad it is likely to be.

“Hwang felt his hamstring in the first half so we were forced into that one,” O’Neil said after the game.

Hamstring injuries are a major area of concern for Hwang, who missed a month earlier this year and was sidelined for nearly 50 days at the end of 2021 with the same issue.

Since joining Wolves in 2021, Hwang has missed a total of 17 games for both Wolves and the Korean team — 16 of those games were missed due to hamstring injuries. A hamstring injury nearly took him out of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, although the fiery midfielder known as The Bull eventually returned in the final group stage game to score the crucial goal that carried Korea through to the knockout stage.

More details on Hwang’s current injuries will likely not be made available until later in the week. In the meantime, Wolves will be back in action on Tuesday as they take on Blackpool in the EFL Cup, before returning to the Premier League to face Crystal Palace on Sunday.