3 min read
23rd Nov 2022
James Collins felt his under-21s deserved more from Tuesday evening’s Papa John’s Trophy tie with Manchester United.
The old gold exited the competition at the round of 32 stage following a goalless draw at Molineux, before the visitors went on to win the penalty shootout. Speaking after the game, Collins expressed his disappointment at going out of a senior competition he describes as a ‘great learning experience’ for the players. And although it was United who progressed, the head coach believes that Wolves created the better openings which perhaps warranted victory before the lottery of penalties decided the tie.
On the tie as a whole
“I thought it was a good tie. For a 0-0 it might sound a boring game, but I thought we had chances, dominated the first half and felt we should’ve been ahead. I spoke to their coach at the end and he felt the same.
“The second half was a little bit more even. We dominated the game but they looked a threat on the counter attack – it looked like one goal would decide it.
“We had the chance at the end which we scored and was offside, so it’s fine lines.
“It goes to penalties and they’re always a lottery. We’ve practiced them and we’ve had good moments and bad moments in my under-21 career here with penalties.
“In the end, tonight we were on the wrong side of it which I didn’t think we deserved. Overall, we deserved to win the tie.”
On creating better chances than Saturday
“We hit the post in the first half with a shot where the goalkeeper made a good save. Harvey had a terrific header where he did well to miss it once he’d done brilliantly to get there.
“I thought we created better chances than we did again Porto, especially in the first half. We still need to do better in the final third and have to create better chances.
“I still thought we created more chances than them and looked more likely than them. We didn’t take those moments and in the end it goes down to that lottery.”
On exiting the competition
“I’m more disappointed because any development game you can get against first team opposition is a great learning experience for our players, which they now won’t get and Manchester United will get.
“We want our players to progress, get in the first team and get good loans. While they’re with us, we want to give them the best learning experience we can, and these games are a brilliant learning experience.
“To go out is the disappointment. Again, the boys can be really proud of being one of the last five under-21 teams left in the tournament and today I thought we were better than Manchester United.
“With a bit of luck and quality, we might have got through. We’ll learn like we always do.”
On what’s to come
“A lot of our boys will now go with the first team for a while with the new gaffer in and he’s got to prepare a team ready for the Premier League which starts again as well as the cup.
“That will be another great learning experience for them. We’ll see who we get back, who he keeps and then we’ve got some exciting games ourselves to look forward to.”
