Benik Afobe hails 'brothers' in promotion push

Benik Afobe puts Wolves' promotion belief down to them being a "band of brothers".

Afobe, who scored his 30th goal of the season in Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Birmingham, reckons the team spirit in the Wolves dressing room is like a family.

At the weekend, it was left back Scott Golbourne who felt the benefit of the collective 'arm around the shoulder' after his mistake allowed Demarai Gray to score the winner at St. Andrew's.

And as they prepare go to bogey team Middlesbrough tonight, 22-year-old Afobe is convinced that togetherness is going to continue to serve Kenny Jackett's squad well in the run-in.

"It's massively important. There are going to be mistakes – not everyone is going to play 10 out of 10 from now until the end of the season," said the £2m striker.

"We're a band of brothers here. Even the manager – I don't think I've seen him shout at one person individually, a rollicking.

"It's nice to see there's someone there to lift you up and you're not thinking 'what's he going to say about me in the changing room, or when I leave the conversation?'

"Everyone understands. We go up to each other and say: 'unlucky, we know it wasn't one of your best games but don't worry about it, we've got you'.

"It's massive – it's helped us a lot and we feel there's a connection from the defenders through to the strikers – even the players on the bench or not in the squad.

"It just shows the manager has good players here and we're a tight group and we'll work for each other.

"We have no-one here who plays for themselves. Sometimes you might get upset with someone but it's not because they don't want to pass to you."

And with tonight's game at Middlesbrough kicking off successive games against fellow promotion chasers with Ipswich to follow on Saturday, Afobe insisted Wolves players need to burn themselves out between now and the end of the season.

"All of the games are going to be cup finals and we can't leave anything for play-offs, we have to burn ourselves out now and act like it's the last game of the season from now until May 2," he said.

After their previous defeat at Bournemouth, Wolves went on a six-match unbeaten run, winning four in a row. And Afobe has challenged Jackett's side to embark on a similar sequence. "Last time we lost we want on a mini-run. Maybe Saturday was the right time to lose and we can get on another four wins in a row," he said.

"It's definitely possible. Other teams will drop points and we have a great chance."

But he sees tonight's opponents as remaining firmly in the mix.

He said: "We know it's going to be tough but we back ourselves and we know with the squad we have we can't get too down or beat ourselves up too much.

"We're level on points with two other teams and only one point off another. Teams are going to drop points but we just have to make sure it's not us."

Afobe gave Wolves the perfect start with the opener on Saturday after a superb assist from strike partner Nouha Dicko.

"On Monday he gave me a slight assist – it just came off him and he was really happy because I've given him three assists so far," said Afobe. "He's like a little Aguero in his work-rate, his persistence and his ability alone.

"When he got into that position he could have gone for goal but he saw I was in a better position and he cut it back for me.

"I celebrated but after that I went to Nouha because I know how much he worked for that and how unselfish he was."