Consistency key for Paul Lambert next season

A poor 3-1 defeat at Bristol City halted Wolves' run of five successive victories.

An angry Lambert was the most critical he's yet been of his players afters the defeat, saying they fell well short of his required standards.

"It was because of the manner of the defeat," he told the Express & Star yesterday.

"It's the first defeat in seven, and because we've been on such a run and won those games...there are a few games to go so go and enjoy those games, but the reason you're enjoying them is because you're winning.

"What you don't want to do is coast in. That's not the way I want it.

"Every game you play in football you play to win, regardless of where you are in the table.

"We were our own worst enemy on Saturday.

"It was a game where we let ourselves down and went away from everything that's been good for the last couple of months.

"We got exactly what we deserved."

Ivan Cavaleiro and Helder Costa were both missing from the starting line-up – the first time that neither has been in the XI since Ipswich away.

Cavaleiro was rested, while Costa missed out with an ankle injury.

While the pair were clearly missed, Lambert said that wasn't an excuse for the defeat.

He added: "Without Costa and Cavaleiro you want others to step up and to be fair they have done, Barnsley away for example.

"It's unfair to say it's just Helder or Cav. I spoke to Cav the other day and the thing with him is he only played 14 games (for Monaco) last season, so you're asking a boy to come in here and play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday and he's just had a month off injured. He's not used to it.

"He'll be better for it next year when he knows exactly what it entails.

"Helder played 40 games or something like that, but even he's new to it. That's why I changed Cav for Morgan (Gibbs-White),

"I thought he needed a little break. To be fair to Cavaleiro when he came on he looked lively."

The notion of being better off next season could be said of a number of players.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson will improve after a break this summer, Lambert believes, while the likes of Nouha Dicko and Joe Mason need a full pre-season and players such as Lee Evans and Kortney Hause have yet to play a full 40-odd game Championship campaign.

Lambert added: "If you look back the whole season...Kenny loses his job a week before, a new manager comes in, so many players come in, new owners...there's been so much upheaval there, it's not been stable.

"Lads that don't know the league, lads who I'm pretty sure not many people knew about.

"You're thinking it's going to be really exciting here and all of a sudden it doesn't transpire that way.

"They'll be a lot better for it. Sometimes you've got to come through the rough to get the smooth at the end of it.

"We have to make a dent in the top end of the table next season and make inroads, on and off the pitch, and change a lot of things to be consistent and be a club that wants to be in the Premier League. That's the standard I don't want to get away from.

"The results and performances you get on Saturday...you can maybe only allow one or two of them, if you go on another winning run, or win two, draw one, win two, lose one, those are the runs you take to get you out of the league.

"If you look at Brighton or Newcastle there won't be many times they've been beaten twice in a row (twice each).

"We've been too inconsistent, which can happen when you have a lot of new players and a lot of change.

"If you create a standard you have to keep in. For us to move on we have to get consistency."