Connor hails Wolves spirit

25 February 2012 21:55

Wolves caretaker Terry Connor believes his players made a statement about their survival hopes by coming from behind to draw at Newcastle.

Connor's team trailed 2-0 in the English Premier League clash at St James' Park, his first match since replacing the sacked Mick McCarthy last week.

Goals from Matt Jarvis and Kevin Doyle saw Wolves salvage a 2-2 draw, and they are now one point outside the relegation zone.

"I was confident before the game," Connor said.

"I know what the dressing room is like and I know how they react in adversity when things don't go quite their way."

"Two weeks ago when we played West Brom and lost 5-1, it was very, very hard for them."

"But I had a feeling they would react in the right manner, a positive manner, and they did that today."

"I know what the lads have been through. After losing 5-1 to West Brom at home, they took their fair share of stick."

"But they have stuck together. They have stuck together in training, they have stuck together all week and they wanted to respond."

"In that dressing room, that's what they are like, and they were magnificent today."

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was frustrated by his team's indifferent start to the second half, and has warned his players to raise their game ahead of next week's derby clash with Sunderland.

"When you are 2-0 up at Newcastle and you are the home team, you have got to win, it's as simple as that," he said.

"We spoke about it at half-time; that the game wasn't over, because Wolves had fair control of the first half, although we got two goals."

"We never got to grips in that first 20 minutes. Having said that, they were two poor goals we conceded and we should have done a lot better."

"We know what's coming. We are in a great position in the league looking at this fixture - it could be a lot worse. I think we are 10 points ahead (of Sunderland)."

"We will look forward to it (the derby). We know they are going to come here with resilience after their result today.

"But we need to be better than we were, and I think we will be, hopefully."