Bruno Lage insists Wolves never considered asking to postpone Southampton game

Posted Sunday, January 16, 2022 by PA

Bruno Lage insisted Wolves never considered asking to postpone their game against Southampton and will always look to play.

Raul Jimenez’s penalty and second-half goals from Conor Coady and Adama Traore earned a 3-1 win at Molineux.

James Ward-Prowse’s wonderful late free-kick briefly made it 2-1 and Romain Perraud hit the bar just before Traore wrapped up victory injury time.

Wolves were missing Ruben Neves with Covid while Romain Saiss is on international duty and Hee-Chan Hwang, Willy Boly, Marcal, Pedro Neto, Yerson Mosquera and Jonny are injured.

Lage gave a debut to defender Toti Gomes after recalling him from Grasshoppers, included two goalkeepers on the bench and gave a late debut to 19-year-old Luke Cundle with three other youngsters unused substitutes.

And, after Arsenal’s request to postpone Sunday’s derby with Tottenham was controversially granted by the Premier League, Lage insisted he always wants to play.

“The most important thing is to complain about nothing and find solutions,” he said. “In two or three weeks we are playing more games with the FA Cup. If you have more games then it’s harder to play.

“If you have players you need to continue to play. We have a lot of kids from the academy to play.

“I want to play and we are in a good moment. I don’t think about that (postponing). I put the kids in training a couple of times with us.

“We needed to prepare for the game in the best way. I prepared a lot of things this week. It was a hard week and I’m feeling very tired.”

Wolves now sit eighth after victory and maintained their push for Europe by taking control after 36 minutes.

Jan Bednarek took down Rayan Ait-Nouri and, although referee Michael Salisbury initially awarded a corner, he was convinced to check the monitor and finally gave a penalty.

The VAR delay meant it took four minutes from the foul until Jimenez stroked in his fourth goal of the season.

But the goal allowed Wolves to grow and they doubled their lead after 59 minutes.

Ait-Nouri’s free-kick found Max Kilman and his looping header bounced off the post for Coady to nod in the rebound. It was the defender’s first goal at Molineux for six years.

Wolves appeared comfortable but Ward-Prowse pulled a goal back with six minutes left when he fired a brilliant 30-yard free-kick past Sa.

Perraud could have made it 2-2 in the final minute of normal time but his header hit the underside of the bar and Traore made him pay.

Ait-Nouri slipped the substitute through and he rolled past Fraser Forster for his first goal since May.

“I don’t know if the better team has won but for sure the luckier team. We had the decisive moments in the game against us,” said Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl.

“Every time they (the referees) check (the monitor) they definitely change their opinion, otherwise they wouldn’t tell him to go there. The referee did a fantastic job, he had a very difficult game under control.

“We conceded the second, maybe Fraser doesn’t have to come out, but then Prowsey’s free-kick is world-class, I have seen a lot of good ones but this is the best from him.

“We had chances to come back, Romain knows he has to score but it didn’t happen, Lyanco got an elbow in his face and we were waiting so maybe we were too naive (expecting a whistle) and they scored a third goal.”