"It feels like half a missed opportunity" - Wolves lose but maintain belief after impressive spell

Kevin De Bruyne's first half strike separated the two sides on Friday night, as Wolves struggled in front of goal without injured striker Jorgen Strand Larsen.

Doherty felt Wolves could have done more to achieve a better result, as the winning run came to an end at the Etihad.

"At 1-0, it looks like it was tight enough, but we had some big chances in the first half," Doherty said.

"We were compact but in the second half we didn't create too much.

"It feels like half a missed opportunity. I didn't think we were amazing today.

"The confidence of having your striker in good form, it changes the whole dynamic of your team when you've got a striker like Jorgen, who's scoring goals and in form, linking well with everybody else.

"It's obviously a big miss."

Despite losing the fixture, the travelling Wolves supporters stuck by the team following Pereira's impressive turnaround this season.

And Doherty had nothing but praise for the job the head coach has done in connecting the club, improving the team and maintaining the 'energy' and relationship with supporters.

He added: "We had the initial bounce-off of Vitor when he came in and then we did lose a few in a row still, but he's just kept the belief there.

"Different managers just bring different things. He kept our heads up and we didn't let our heads drop at all.

"We managed to turn it around, and obviously we've turned it around in an unbelievable way over the last six or seven games.

"We can be proud of what we've done in the second half of the season.

"The energy in the club (is important).

"We're still in the bottom half of the table but that's kind of not the point at the moment.

"The connection seems to be there, the energy is there, and the results are there, obviously not tonight, but the results have been there for the last six games.

"We're not going to lose confidence off tonight. We can understand that it was probably a game where, if we watch it back, we could have probably got something out of.

"But let's just be happy with what we've done over the last second half of the season."