Gary O'Neil pleased with Wolves' progress
Gary O'Neil believes Wolves have 'come a long way' since their opening-day defeat by Manchester United.
O'Neil's first game in charge ended in a 1-0 loss at Old Trafford, although the Wolves boss subsequently received an apology from head of referees Howard Webb over the failure to award a late penalty following a blatant foul by Andre Onana on Sasa Kalajdzic.
Wolves also lost their next game 4-1 at home to Brighton but have suffered just one Premier League defeat at Molineux since and face Erik ten Hag's side on Thursday buoyed by an FA Cup victory over bitter rivals West Brom.
"What it (the game at Old Trafford) showed is the group were capable and willing, firstly," O'Neill told a pre-match press conference.
"When I watch it back now, we've come a long way tactically since then, but for the boys to be able to buy into what I'd asked them in such a short period of time, and to carry it out with as much zest and passion as they did, was a good start point for us.
"We suffered a few setbacks from there and I'm sure we'll still suffer some more, but it's a day I look back on fairly fondly because it was my first game in charge of Wolves, a fantastic club.
"We didn't manage to get anything out of it, but it gave us a real, good start point to work from.
"I'm pleased with where we've managed to get to, but not content. I'm not thinking if we motor along like this, we'll be fine.
"I want the players to have a realistic view on where we are. Their focus should be, and will be purely, on winning the next game. Of course, the more games you win, the more you can start to look upwards.
"If we lose tomorrow and the teams down the bottom win, we get closer to the bottom, so there's still a need for realism and how quickly things can change.
"We need to be driven by trying to be successful and a fear of failure. I was always that way as a player, where I didn't want to fail, and I want the lads to feel that."
Joao Gomes is available again after being suspended following his red card at Brentford, while Rayan Ait-Nouri is fit to start after coming off the bench for the last 20 minutes at The Hawthorns on Sunday.
