Gary O'Neil aggrieved at 'excessive' added time in Wolves draw

Hwang Hee-chan’s opener was cancelled out by Pau Torres’ first for Villa in the second half.

Mario Lemina was sent off at the start of 12 minutes of added time, but the officials played on until Ollie Watkins had a chance with the final kick of the game, which he saw smash the post.

O’Neil, who fumed at the fourth official at the time of the incident, felt the added time dragged on longer than it should and would have been extremely harsh on his side had Watkins found a winner.

“They explained that there was the sending off and he had to walk off the pitch and there was a VAR check as well during it, which added a little bit extra,” O’Neil said.

“14 minutes – or whatever it ended up being – seems excessive, because it didn’t feel like there were loads of stoppages in the second half.

“But down to 10 men and hanging on, we needed a little bit of good fortune and for the lads to work their socks off.

“It would have been a really big blow for us to lose that game, considering the sort of control we had in the second half when we were 11 against 11.”

Both sides had chances throughout the game, while Wolves survived periods of Villa pressure to take a point.

Coming into this game on the back of a win over Manchester City, O'Neil was pleased with his Wolves side and how he felt they controlled spells.

He added: “Aston Villa are quite passive and we forced them into a back six a lot, so once you go 1-0 up I thought it would be tricky for them to manage to get pressure on the ball without us causing them more problems.

“The nature of their equaliser is disappointing, especially so quickly after, but I think we probably edged it at 11 v 11, apart from the start maybe.

“There were a few chances Sa had to save at the start, but apart from that I don’t remember him doing too much.

"Pedro and Sasa had a couple of really big chances in the second half, but a point is fair-ish I would suggest.

“We had two chances – Sasa’s lovely cross for Pedro, a big chance across the face, then Pedro’s cut back for Sasa, another big chance. I didn’t feel like our goal was under any threat when it was 11v11 and I thought we were causing Aston Villa some problems.

“I’m pleased we were capable of matching a good side, that are in Europe and have spent a lot of money on the squad, and we looked comfortable.

“There wasn’t a huge gap between the two sides.

“We were the ones looking more likely (to score) and had decent control until the sending off. Then we were hanging on. But it was a good point against a good side.”