Gary O’Neil ‘really sad’ about crowd incidents; ‘really hopes’ West Brom players’ families are ‘ok’
Wolves manager Gary O’Neil has stated he was “really sad” about the crowd atmosphere in his side’s match against West Brom, and “really hopes” the families of the home players are “ok” after the incidents.
The Black Country derby is one of the most fierce in English football, with the sides battling for bragging rights since they first met way back in 1886. They’ve not had much chance to play each other in recent years, owing to the fact they’ve been in different divisions.
But that they drew each other in the fourth round of the FA Cup gave Championship West Brom the chance to test themselves against their Premier League rivals.
The game was unfortunately marred by crowd trouble, which saw the tie suspended for a short while late on, and Baggies players removed their children from the stands as they feared for their safety.
While Wolves came out 2-0 victors, O’Neil felt the incidents dampened the mood.
“Really disappointing, up until that point it was a good tie with good atmosphere. Not really sure what happened, the ref advised us to leave the pitch,” he told ITV.
“We don’t know exactly what happened, how people behave at football is really important and we need to look at that, make sure everyone is safe. When we came back out the atmosphere had gone, it was really sad to see.
“I couldn’t really see what was going on, I know that the West Brom players’ families were in that area which is a concern. I really hope everyone’s ok, I’m not really sure what stoked it. We got the fixture played without any more trouble happening.”
O’Neil detailed the importance of the victory after the stoppage, and is hopeful the aim of winning the FA Cup can stay alive going into the next round.
“Just staying calm, make sure we get some food and fluid on board because it was a late part of the match. It felt like a really important victory,” he said.
“I don’t know about aim, but when we were drawn at Brentford away, our aim was to win the FA Cup. That was Brentford, today was West Brom.
“We’ve now got Manchester United and Chelsea coming three days apart. Two tough games and we have to be ready.”
