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Along with Newcastle United, Wolves were in FA Cup action this midweek.
United winning on penalties on Tuesday night at Blackburn.
Wolves also getting through to the last eight of the FA Cup, though they played on Wednesday night and so have 24 hours less recovery / preparation time than United.
Wolves struggled last night with only 28 per cent possession and only two efforts on target, however, it proved just about enough as Lemina scored after only two minutes and the Midlands side managed to hold out against a Brighton side who dominated much of the match.
After the match, Gary O’Neill admitted it was tough to balance Premier League and Cup commitments with such a small squad and was relieved to get through to the FA Cup quarter-finals.
However, he did admit that there was a big blow in advance of facing Newcastle United at the weekend.
Wolves have scored 40 Premier League goals this season, Man U the only team in the top half of the table to have scored less. Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha have scored 19 of that low 40 goals total, with ten and nine goals each respectively.
Cunha was already ruled out of the Newcastle United match through injury and now top scorer Hwang Hee-chan has joined him.
Hwang Hee-chan went down injured holding his hamstring and limped off the pitch in the 56th minute. Whilst goalscorer / matchwinner Lemina also went off at the same time, having struggled after getting ‘tackled’ down the back of his Achilles by Pascal Gross just before half-time.
After the match Wolves boss Gary O’Neill said that he would be ‘amazed’ if Hwang Hee-chan has any chance of facing Newcastle United and whilst he says it looks like a small hamstring problem, it is expected that his top goalscorer will miss at least a week or two of action as a minimum.
With so few goals in this Wolves team and second top scorer Cunha not expected back any time soon, there is surely no way Gary O’Neil would even consider risking Hwang Hee-chan at Newcastle, especially when two weeks later they have a very generous home draw against Championship side Coventry in the FA Cup.
After the match, Gary O’Neill had other injury / availability news for the Newcastle match. Joao Gomes had to be subbed late but the Wolves boss thinks it is just cramp, while he believes last night’s matchwinner Mario Lemina will also be fine for Newcastle.
Of those seemingly set to be able to face Newcastle on Saturday, midfielder Lemina has the most Premier League goals this season. Whilst his replacement last night, Sarabia (three PL goals), is the only other available Wolves player who has scored more than two PL goals this season.
In the last five Premier League meetings of the two clubs, Wolves have scored only six goals and Hwang Hee-chan has got four of the six, including that goal that rescued a point for Wolves in the 2-2 draw at Molineux this season.
Gary O’Neill – 29 February 2024:
“Channy [Hwang Hee-chan] felt his hamstring a little bit which for a squad as small as this, especially in that area [up front], is a disaster but trying to pick the right ones to rest and which ones can play was a tough couple of days for us. Channy’s doesn’t look too serious, seems like a little one.
“[But] I’ll be amazed if he (Hwang Hee-chan) plays against Newcastle.
“Winning the game was the most important thing but we’re a small group and we can’t afford to just keep injuring people so we needed to be clever and apart from Channy we got through it ok.”
Newcastle United confirmed matches to mid-April 2024:
Saturday 2 March 2024 – Newcastle v Wolves (3pm)
Monday 11 March 2024 – Chelsea v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports
Weekend of Saturday 16 March 2024 – Man City v Newcastle
Saturday 30 March 2024 – Newcastle v West Ham (12.30pm) TNT Sports
Tuesday 2 April 2024 – Newcastle v Everton (7.30pm) TNT Sports
Saturday 6 April 2024 – Fulham v Newcastle (3pm)
Saturday 13 April 2024 – Newcastle v Spurs (12.30pm) TNT Sport

 
