Matheus Cunha recovers a final point for Wolves in their comeback at Brighton | first division

Redemption for Gary O'Neil. His Wolves team has rarely been criticized for a lack of effort, but while their manager's penetrating gaze can regularly sting with a sense of unfairness to officials, individual errors, star players sold in the summer and lapses have piled up. of concentration. It seemed likely that they would be costly here too, but in the end, that hard work and flashes of quality paid off. The Wolves fought until the end when all seemed lost, pulling off a thrilling two-goal comeback culminated in Matheus Cunha's last-gasp equaliser.

Danny Welbeck's opening goal in the 45th minute had undone Wolves' solid first-half efforts. In the second half, the quality of the visitors' finishing let them down before Evan Ferguson's first goal since November 2023 put Brighton two up.

“Two expensive gifts,” O'Neil said. Could he survive until next Saturday's meeting with his fellow Crystal Palace fighters? Surely the odds were against that.

“We decided to do it the hard way,” said O'Neil, in perpetual motion on the bench but then looking relaxed for the first time in many months. His team had moved away from the bottom of the first division. “At the end it got crazy… with 2-0 down, I thought I was in for some tough questions.”

Fabian Hürzeler, Brighton's prodigy coach, is learning valuable lessons and he will do so from a game that got out of his hands. Cunha's goal came immediately after four Brighton attackers charged with abandon towards the Wolves goal. “Today we have failed in our development,” said Hürzeler. “We weren't mature enough to win this game.”

In Brighton, Hürzeler will have time to learn from his mistakes. For O'Neil, whose team last won in the league against Luton in April, the time for experimentation has now expired, even if Tommy Doyle's midfield passing range employed from the start was a change of direction.

If O'Neil saw “fight, passion and effort” as keys to his team's revival, he admitted his disappointment over the negative selection of five defensive players.

It was Doyle who intercepted Mats Wieffer's pass to set up Cunha's equaliser, making up for the Wolves' best chance of the first half being missed by Cunha. With Doyle, Rayan Aït-Nouri, scorer of the first goal, João Gomes and Cunha, the Wolves do not lack individual talent.

The lack of solidity and concentration continue to be its weaknesses. In a closely contested and intriguing tactical battle in the first half, O'Neil, understandably given his job prospects, was the most uneasy of the coaches. Shaun Derry, the assistant who took over the role from the recently discarded set-piece coach Jack Wilson, got the defenders into position as the corners piled up for Brighton.

It looked like they were going to end the first half, but Georginio Rutter gave a pass to Welbeck to finish with ease, his sixth goal of the season. The evergreen Mancunian is in the shape of his life.

The break brought changes, Pablo Sarabia and Carlos Forbs for Toti and Mario Lemina, attacking changes that reflected Brighton's form; O'Neil was going for it.

Little by little, the Wolves gained more territory although at the same time they left space on the counterattack. Welbeck should have done better when Sarabia inadvertently passed the ball to him while Yasin Ayari, a vibrant presence in Brighton's midfield, also shot wide.

Then came the Wolves' best chance yet. Sarabia's laser-guided pass found Cunha, but the shot was a little less precise. Hürzeler made his first changes, Welbeck coming off for Ferguson, but chances continued to fall for Wolves before Hürzeler fatefully introduced Wieffer's extra height.

“In games like this you don't win pretty, you have to win ugly,” Hürzeler said of the final moments in which his team lost control despite a two-goal lead. “They punished us.”

Ferguson's goal, assisted by fellow substitute Tariq Lamptey, could have extinguished Wolves' hopes and O'Neil's chances of remaining their manager, only for Aït-Nouri to almost immediately return home and spark the madness which Brighton could not cope with. “Too passive,” said Hürzeler.

Cunha started his solo run and his shot bounced off Jan Paul van Hecke's ankle and into the net. O'Neil celebrated as anyone granted such salvation would. “They have given everything,” he said.