Wolves manager Gary O’Neil has brushed off speculation about his future following a last-minute defeat to Ipswich - and has pointed the finger firmly at his players who he has vowed to punish.
Jack Taylor's stoppage-time goal led to a 2-1 home loss for Wolves, marking their fourth consecutive defeat. The team's defensive issues were evident as they conceded an early own goal by Matt Doherty and allowed Taylor to score from a corner in the final moments.
Despite equalising through Matheus Cunha, tensions ran high with Rayan Ait-Nouri receiving a second yellow card post-match and Cunha needing to be restrained. It is the second successive match there have been problems after the final whistle with Mario Lemina being held back after the defeat at West Ham.
O'Neil said: "When the players step out of line, they're heavily punished by me. I haven't seen it, but Rayan will know how I feel about it already because getting a second yellow card and being unavailable for next week's game can have catastrophic consequences.
"However much stress and however much pressure we’re under at this moment, we need to keep control. We saw it a little bit when we went down to 10 men when Matheus Cunha came off (for treatment) and our central midfielder goes and presses Ipswich’s goalie when we’re down to 10 men.
"It’s absolutely ludicrous. It’s a ludicrous decision, and then when we’ve got 30 seconds left, having just battered Ipswich’s door down for the whole second half, two people decide to change positions to defend a corner. They need to make better decisions."
Asked about his own future, O'Neil added: "I am honestly not interested in my own position. I know the work that I do every day and I know the situation that we’re in. I know that getting this group to perform the way they did took a lot of work today.
"So of course people can point a finger at me but some of the responsibility has to land on the players in those moments. When we get in good situations and we spoon the ball off the pitch, I can’t help them with that. That’s like, ‘Come on guys, it’s the Premier League now’.
"I’m really comfortable with myself as a coach, my standards, what I ask of the group and what I’m going to do over the next however many years that I decide to be a coach for.
"But I also embrace this difficult moment. That group downstairs need me again this week to help get them in a place where they’re ready to go and I’ll keep fighting for them and with them until I’m told not to.
"But I’ve no concerns around that. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think I’m going to get sacked as obviously with every result that comes, the chances of me losing my job will heighten as we all know, it’s nothing new.
"But it doesn’t concern me. The situation drives me to want to be better and drives me to to get more out of the group."
The Wolves manager held absolutely nothing back in his analysis of their defeat: "The first goal is unacceptable for Premier League level. Liam Delap did that a lot when he played under-18s against kids that were 2ft smaller than him, when he looked like he was playing two years up, bashing people out of the way and running throug.
"But that’s not acceptable to concede that goal at Premier League level. Liam Delap won’t score that goal against any other Premier League team. So that’s two areas we’re really struggling with and both are really related to physicality and being able to cope with physicality in our defending areas.
"The really damning verdict is when we are close to maximum, we’re still not able to come out on top in a game that we should have come out on top of easily because of two really basic goals.
"We need to be really honest with where we are because you either find a way to be good enough or you get replaced. That goes for me, that goes for the players. That’s the nature of the business, it is a very competitive industry, especially at Premier League level.
"And change will come if you constantly keep falling below the level, which we have in two key areas. It’s really difficult for me to protect them from that. I can protect them from a lot with a game plan but that wasn’t a problem today."
Ait-Nouri’s first-half booking was already enough to see him suspended for next week’s trip to Leicester. Also booked after the whistle was Ipswich striker Liam Delap, already substituted, and his fifth card of the season will rule him out of the Newcastle game next week.
Ipswich have had three late winners go against them already this season, including a late double from Bournemouth in a 2-1 home defeat last week, which made it doubly sweet for the Tractor Boys to get one of their own.
"It’s fantastic of course," Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said. "That’s football and these moments are moments to cherish for everyone involved in the club.
"We’ve had a few go against us this year. Not only last week, but Brentford was a tough one in the 97th minute (a 4-3 defeat in October), but we’ve had plenty go for us in the last few years as well, so there’s no violins for us as a football club.
"We’re not going to blow teams out of the water so we’re competitive every week and it means games are going be decided on fine margins and we’ve got to keep working really hard on every tiny detail that can turn the tide in our favour and today we came out on top of it."