Gary O'Neil hails ice-cool Wolves reaction against Man City

In contrast to recent performances, Wolves held their nerve and found a winner of their own through Hwang Hee-chan, and O’Neil was delighted with his side’s response in the face of adversity.

“I was pleased,” O’Neil said when asked about the character his side showed after City’s equaliser.

“It was a big blow to suffer. We’d looked so good until that moment and Manchester City didn’t cut us open, they’ve just scored an unbelievable free-kick.

“It’s a tough blow and I was so keen for the lads to return back to the plan as quickly as possible, not start to let emotion take over and forget where we were and what we were trying to do. I managed to get the messages to them and I could see the leaders on the pitch organising that as well.

“It’s a big improvement for us because recently when we’ve conceded goals, you can see the emotion of conceding starts to take over from what we’re trying to do.

“It was a big response, because everyone in the country probably expected Man City to go on and win at that point.

“To not only shut them out for the rest of the game, but to still carry a threat like we did and score a good goal, was a big positive.”

An impressive defensive display from Max Kilman, Toti Gomes and in particular Craig Dawson also restricted Erling Haaland to just one weak shot all game.

O’Neil added: “Max and Daws were around Haaland more and Toti was coming out with Foden where he could and trying to be aggressive.

“We tried to keep Max and Daws around Haaland where we could, and if we ever had to get Max to do something else, we tried to make sure it was in a compact area so Daws wasn’t left one-on-one in big areas.

“We tried to make sure any time Haaland was a threat, it was in an area that suited Daws’ strengths.

“Daws showed exactly what he is, an unbelievable defender in the box and unbelievable at defending the goal. He’s intelligent and fully committed. Max was around him as well to give him some protection and I thought the two of them were very good against one of the best strikers in the world.”