Express & Star

Wolves boss: We need to dig deep to become a force

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Kenny Jackett today admitted that Wolves are still a work in progress.

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The head coach believes being a 'surprise package' to the rest of the Championship helped last season's League One champions begin the season in roaring form.

But five defeats in a row suggested they had been found out before last Saturday's win at Sheffield Wednesday proved the Molineux men have learned some tough lessons.

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"One result can turn a poor run but I wouldn't say we are necessarily there yet," said the head coach.

"We can't say at the moment we're a force in the division. We want to be a force – that's our aim. We want to make sure we build a side that is good enough to do that.

"It's been a case of adjusting to the league. Early on, clubs didn't know us. Since then, we've hit a period where sides worked us out and we had to adjust again.

"I hope we've proved we can keep doing that.

"You have to dig deep, you have to be resilient and in football you always have to bounce back. Your next game is always your big test."

Jackett says the hard work is reaping rewards.

After more of a back-to-basics approach for the physical test posed by Wednesday, Jackett is urging his players to show they can mix silk and steel.

"The first thing you have to do is to compete, the first thing you have to do is to defend, the first thing you have to do is to affect both boxes," he said.

"Once you've done that you get a foothold and you can build some sort of stability and confidence.

"Then, in terms of our passing, we would love to develop some control in our play.

"At certain stages in the last 18 months we've done that. We didn't necessarily have that control on Saturday but we did defend well and we had a real whole-hearted performance, a competitive performance, which after the run of results we've had is a start and something we can build on."