17 December 2023 , 19:22
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Gary O’Neil rued “disastrous decision-making” after Wolves were caught on the break three times in their defeat away to West Ham.
And the Wolves head coach was particularly frustrated by the manner in which his team “gifted” the Hammers' star forward Mo Kudus their opening goal midway through the opening half.
Wolves had more possession and shots at London Stadium - but O’Neil conceded the Hammers were ruthless when it mattered with Lucas Paqueta providing all three assists, Kudus adding a second and Jarrod Bowen tagging on the third to hit double figures for the campaign so far.
“Disastrous decision-making and errors around the goals made the rest of the game irrelevant,” O'Neil said. “It was a crazy first goal to concede from our own corner, the second was from committing an extra man forward too early and a terrible decision.
“We gifted it to West Ham. I understand people don’t want me to explain how even the game was when we lost 3-0. But West Ham were far better in the big moments.
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“All three goals were from transitions. Really poor. We have to improve that. We only gave West Ham three or four chances and they converted three of them.
“That’s nowhere near good enough. To lose the second half 1-0 was crazy after how dominant we were.”
O’Neil was reluctant to be drawn into a refereeing row after he was booked following a protest over the decision not to punish Vladimir Coufal for planting his arm in the face of Jean-Ricner Bellegarde near half-time.
“I didn’t watch it back but over the course of the game his challenges warranted two yellows at least,” O’Neil said. “But it played no real part in the final result today because of the goals we gave away.
"My booking was really harsh. That’s two now so I need to be on my best behaviour going forwards.”
Despite the 3-0 win, West Ham boss David Moyes believes his team can improve further and they face Liverpool away in the last eight of the EFL Cup on Wednesday night.
The Scot added: "The big thing I’m looking forward to is I think we can play much better. We’ve got a bit more to go, whether that be defending better or controlling it a bit more. There’s more steps for us to take. Hopefully we can do that.”