Conor Coady ‘over the moon’ for Max Kilman after successful Wolves return

Having not featured at all post-lockdown, the 23-year-old was handed a rare start as Nuno Espirito Santo’s pack got back to winning ways against Fulham on Sunday.

He played on the left of the back three while Romain Saiss filled in at left-wing-back, and skipper Coady was very impressed with Kilman’s display as he said: “I thought he was outstanding, but I would expect nothing else from him.

“He’s brilliant to have around and is a brilliant professional – he listens to the manager, he learns off the lads who’ve been playing there the last couple of years and I think you could see that.

“But also in the games he played last season, so he’s got that experience now of playing a couple of games and you’ve seen that, so I was absolutely over the moon for him.”

Kilman had the best pass percentage of any Wolves player in the 1-0 victory against the Cottagers, with 95 per cent of his 56 passes finding their target. Brought in from non-league outfit Maidenhead United a couple of years ago, he has now made 13 appearances in gold and back and will be hoping to add to that at Leeds a week on Monday.

It was a much better defensive display as a whole following the humiliating 4-0 loss at West Ham. Asked what they did differently at the back, Coady said: “It was not that different at all, to be

honest.

“I think we went back to the basics; being closer to each other, being more in line with each other and making sure we were stepping out with each other.

“It’s important when you play against top strikers like (Aleksandar) Mitrovic and the forward boys that they’ve got.

“But it was no different. Max has been with us for years, he trains with us every single day, he knows the role inside out.

“He’s a fantastic lad and a brilliant professional as well. But it’s something we still want to build on and get better with.”

On the clean sheet, Coady added: “It was something that we needed.

“We looked at last week and it wasn’t good enough from our point of view, and we thought about it every day.

“We’ve tried to improve different aspects and a clean sheet was just as big as the win.

“It was good, something that we needed, and now we can move on and improve again.”

Meanwhile, Wolves have terminated the contract of former under-23s captain Ed Francis by mutual consent.

Francis, who is now a free agent, spent 18 months in the development set-up after being signed from Manchester City and helped the under-23s win PL2 Division Two in 2018/19.

He also went on the first team’s pre-season tour of China last summer.

Fellow youngster John Kitolano, having been recalled from Molde, has gone on loan to another Norwegian side, Odds Ballklubb.