Rayan Aït-Nouri gets Wolves back on track, but injuries ruin victory over Fulham | first division

Gary O'Neil called the Wolves victory 2-1 Fulham as his favorite of the season given the adversity his team overcame. With several key players already out, they were forced to make two first-half changes due to injuries to Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Pedro Neto, but a second-half goal from Rayan Aït-Nouri and an own goal from Tom Cairney put Wolves in control early. Alex Iwobi scored practically on the last shot of the game.

“An incredible victory,” said a delighted O'Neil, whose team is eighth. “I think my favorite is in terms of what we've had to deal with, the position we were in before the game, the position we found ourselves in 20-odd minutes into the game. Find a way to beat a Fulham team that is in a really good moment. When I received their team sheet, I realized how strong they are in terms of depth, the incredible bench they had at their disposal.

“Obviously we are in a different moment. We can be as strong as that but right now we are not. Then, mentally, for the players to lose the only attackers we had left and still be able to find a way to respond, I thought that was an incredible victory.

“I'm sure they are, but the fans should be incredibly proud of the team they've just seen. “If I had grown up a Wolves fan and you had asked me what I wanted my team to be, that would have been it.”

The considerable negative were the two injuries: Bellegarde injured his left knee in the first minutes and Neto stopped just before the break holding his left leg.

The Portuguese winger, who missed two months with a right hamstring injury, retired at half-time against Newcastle last week due to tightness in the same thigh, leaving O'Neil to regret his selection. of equipment. “He had a really good week,” the coach said. “They did a scan that was completely clear, without any muscle damage, he felt very good yesterday in training and today he felt good again.

“That's up to me if the decision to play him today was right. I am devastated for Pedro and how hard he has worked to get back. We have hope. The doctors don't think it's anything like the first one, but it'll be a scan and we'll go from there.

“If I had the squad back now, of course I wouldn't put Pedro Neto's name on it.”

It was a frustrating afternoon for Fulham manager Marco Silva, who saw Harry Wilson miss a one-on-one and Tosin Adarabioyo hit the crossbar in the first half. “We had a chance to go into halftime winning,” Silva said. “We didn't start very well, but after the first opportunity we created, from that moment on we gained momentum and started to be in the lead.

“But the reality is that the game lasts 95 minutes and the way we started the second half we played too slowly, losing some balls in dangerous areas that we cannot lose. And from that moment on we are punished.”