Wolves captain Toti Gomes has admitted that the club's dreadful season has taken a significant mental toll on the players, following a 3-0 defeat at Brighton that leaves them on the brink of relegation.
The loss, another lackluster performance, means Wolves are sliding out of the Premier League with a whimper, with only two matches remaining. The skipper, visibly dejected after a campaign to forget, opened up about the struggles behind the scenes.
Mental Strain on Players
"It's been a tough season, it's been very long," Gomes said. "It's been very tough, especially mentally for all the players. We've tried to stay strong and help each other, and at the training ground we've been working, pushing, week after week. It feels like we are never lucky; everything happens to us, and we've been through a lot."
The defender highlighted the poor start at the Amex Stadium, where Wolves conceded within 35 seconds and were 2-0 down by the fifth minute. "They wanted it more than us, and we were just defending. We tried to keep men in the area to defend those crosses, but the first minute cost us a lot," he explained.
Costly Early Goals
Gomes acknowledged that the early goals effectively decided the match. "We had a tough start. We know they're a strong team and they were going to come at us very hard, but those first minutes cost us the game. Suffering those two goals very early is definitely not what we wanted, but it's happened before in previous games. We tried to fix that, but it's not how we wanted to start the game. It definitely cost us a lot."
The Wolves captain also revealed the halftime message from manager Vitor Pereira. "The gaffer told us we had to come on strong in the second half, otherwise they would score again and again. We knew we had to go for their weakness and try to play. We tried to do it and we had a few chances, but we were not lucky to score, and in the end they came again and in a very unfortunate moment they scored."
