IT’S COAD RED...
Conor warns: We are up for it, especially after Baggies beat us 3-2 in January
CONOR COADY has issued a rallying call ahead of tomorrow’s Black Country derby – admitting Wolves are primed for revenge.
The England international spoke up after the club suffered their heaviest home reversal under manager Nuno Espirito Santo, going down with a whimper at Molineux in a four-goal bashing by Burnley.
Coady says he is well aware of the fans’ feelings following the lesson handed out by the Clarets.
And while he admits the campaign has been “tough” there can be no excuses at the Hawthorns.
He said: “There’s been a reaction among ourselves, we’ve been talking to make sure what happened last week never happens again. It was unacceptable.
“It’s been a tough season for us all, if you look at the whole picture but, honestly, what took place against Burnley can never happen again.
“It’s not us. It’s not what Wolves have been about during these last few years. We’ve spoken.
And we’ll learn.
“So to have this game against West Brom is huge. Huge.
“Especially because of what happened earlier on in the season as well. It’s something
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LLWWL Neves/Neto (5)
we’re focusing on – and we’ve been focusing on this game since we last played against them – because it’s massive for this football club.
“It’s a massive game for our supporters. We know how important it is to come out the other end with a good result for them.
“They’re everything to us.
“And we know all those years where we have not played West Brom – whether it was us in the Championship or them – so we know how big it is, the rivalry.
“We’re looking forward to it. We’ve looked forward to it since the last one.” Wolves have found life difficult this season because of the loss through injury of leading scorer Raul Jimenez following a sickening clash of heads with Arsenal’s David Luiz at the Emirates last November.
But Coady says there will be no case offered in mitigation if the club doesn’t come up with the goods at the Hawthorns.
He added: “It’s been hard. But we’re a club that never makes excuses.
“We’ve never made one in all the years I’ve been here.
“Everyone has injuries – difficult injuries – but we can only look at ourselves and it’s up to us to cope because these things happen in football.
“We’ve lost some massive players and some in the last few weeks – Pedro Neto, Jonny – Raul earlier this season.
Joao Moutinho didn’t play at the weekend, Willy Boly went down with Covid-19, as did Ruben Neves.
“We don’t talk about that, about us losing players – it’s up to those on the pitch, performing to a standard. We’ve not done that in the last game.
“It’s about meeting challenges. It’s been a tough year for everyone and I feel daft saying some of this because we’re the lucky people who get to play football for a living.
“But we’ve had some tough moments over the past year.
“Since the manager came in, everything’s been on an upwards curve. We’ve enjoyed every second of it.
“We never really had those tricky moments but now we need to show ourselves as characters, as individuals, as a team and bring the club through this as best as we possibly can.”