Shropshire Star

Wolves goalscorer Matheus Cunha dreaming after FA Cup derby day win

Matheus Cunha has hailed an ‘incredible’ derby day atmosphere and hopes Wolves can start dreaming of a cup run.

Published
Last updated

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

With local bragging rights and a place in the fifth round at stake, Cunha scored the second goal in a 2-0 win at The Hawthorns.

Wolves now face a home tie with Brighton in the next round and Cunha hopes his side can now go on a charge to Wembley.

“We train a lot and we need to keep going,” Cunha said.

“Neto finished really well and the team got another clean sheet, which is very important. We are really happy.

“In every competition we need to believe. We need to do our best and everything will come to us.

“We need to keep going until the end and to Wembley. We need to dream and believe and I hope good things are coming for us this season.”

In the aftermath of Cunha’s goal, crowd trouble inside the ground saw the game stop for 35 minutes.

But the forward was pleased with Wolves’ response to a fiery atmosphere. He said: “I said it before the game, derby days are always incredible. The atmosphere was amazing and we’re very happy.

“At 2-0 we were calm and concentrated on what to do. We came back out to finish the game with a victory and we did well.”

When asked if he felt safe to play on, the Brazilian added: “100 per cent. I’m from South America, these kind of things happen.

“The most important thing is that everyone is safe. Both teams played well and it was a great atmosphere.”

The trouble inside the ground happened in two areas of the home section, but seems to have started when Wolves fans with Albion tickets celebrated the Cunha goal.

Head coach Gary O’Neil was pleased with the club’s ‘excellent’ supporters, with no trouble coming from the away end.

He said: “I think a first for most and definitely for me, I don’t think the players would have been involved in anything like that before. Disappointed, firstly. But then we need to focus around making sure we can get the job done.

“There wasn’t too much discussion around the trouble because it was really hard to see where I was exactly what was going on. From my point of view it was a long way away from the Wolves fans, I thought they were excellent. The numbers that they came in, the noise that they made.

“It’s 28 years since we’ve managed to win here so I hope they enjoyed it.

“I thought they behaved themselves really really well inside the stadium and I’m just disappointed that I saw some of the West Brom players having to carry their children out of the stand and that should never ever be a thing.

“Nobody should ever need to do that, disappointed. I hope everyone gets home safe and there’s nothing stupid happening after.”

In the end it was a ‘professional’ Wolves performance that secured the win, making it seven unbeaten.

“It wasn’t vintage with the ball at all but I didn’t expect it to be to be honest with the pitch and it being an FA Cup tie and West Brom are good at home and it’s a local derby,” O’Neil added. “I didn’t expect it to be overly fluid but a lot of work went into that this week, if we’d lost today there would have been a lot of noise about how we’d lost against a local rival.

“Lads were really professional and stuck together and never really looked under threat against a good side.”