Nuno Espirito Santo praises players after victory over Burton

Posted Sunday, March 18, 2018 by PA

Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo praised the control shown by his table-topping side following their 3-1 Sky Bet Championship win against Burton at Molineux.

Wolves took the lead through Helder Costa after 15 minutes and doubled their advantage when Benik Afobe struck in the 41st minute.

Lloyd Dyer reduced the arrears on the stroke of half-time before Afobe struck again in the 56th minute.

Wolves are now six points clear of second-placed Cardiff and Nuno said: “It was a good performance that showed control and character.

“We know that playing well takes you to victory, but the consistency from the team that we asked for was there. “This is the most important part of it as this is what we showed again today.

“They played really well. The crowd supported us and I think they enjoyed it but at the same time the lads enjoyed playing.

“The talent comes when you are organised and when you are intense and you are in shape and reacting to the loss of the ball. All these things are very important.

“The important is the how. The what and when will come naturally. The important thing is how we play.”

Afobe has now scored four goals in his last four appearances after returning to the club on loan from Bournemouth but Nuno will not be drawn on whether the deal could become permanent at the end of the season.

He added: “Benik is getting to his best now like the team. We are building a team and for now we are only focusing on the next game. I only think about the hard work that I have to do here to keep things going.”

Burton remain deep in relegation trouble and manager Nigel Clough admitted it would have been a tall order for his injury-hit side to get anything against their expensively-assembled opponents.

He said: “The quality Wolves have is very close now to Premier League standard. This was the biggest mismatch in English football today.

“You have got £15million players out there and that is more than half our budget. That shows the difference. With all the will in the world we didn’t expect to get much today.

“My only criticism of the players is the goals that we conceded. They were a little bit too easy from our point of view.

“It was a very difficult afternoon for our lads when there is that much of a gulf between the teams. But they kept going. Wolves have some top, top players and we couldn’t cope with that.

“When we got the nerve to get the ball down and play we were okay for that little spell, could have had a penalty (when Tom Flanagan went down) and nobody crumbled. They kept doing their job.”