Stephen Ward has described the anguish felt by Wolves' players after the defeat by Fulham, but says they must look to the future.
Wolves 'hurting' after Fulham loss but still determined to beat drop
Stephen Ward has described the anguish felt by Wolves' players after the defeat by Fulham, but says they must look to the future and return to winning ways against Blackburn on Saturday.
Wolves had been hoping to boost their survival hopes when they made the trip to Craven Cottage at the weekend, but instead they were thrashed 5-0 as Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a hat-trick and Clint Dempsey also netted twice.
The result left Terry Connor's men in the bottom three ahead of a meeting with Steve Kean's fellow strugglers at Molineux, and Ward knows the focus must be on responding in the right manner.
"It hurt last night and will hurt until we get back in to training," the versatile 26-year-old told the club's
official website.
"We have just got to forget about it and have got to the stage this season where we can't dwell on things.
"It was a bad result against a good Fulham side and we have to dust ourselves down because the game next week will be massive for us."
Tight
Ward is confident Wolves can avoid relegation by enjoying a strong finish to the season, even though he accepts it may go right down to the wire.
"We still believe we can get out of trouble - we are the same group of players that stayed up these last two seasons," he said.
"We are the ones in this position and of course we believe we can get out of it.
"Results like this happen - that's football. You know it is so tight down there and every team has got a tough 11 games to go.
"We stayed up by the skin of our teeth last year and there is no reason why we can't do the same this year."
Outplayed
Ward admitted there were no excuses for the defeat at Craven Cottage, preferring to congratulate Fulham for a dominant display.
"It was a difficult day - to be honest," he said. "We were just outplayed and Fulham were by far the better team.
"Fulham are a good team and their home form has been outstanding but there is no excuse for conceding five and then capitulating.
"We are bitterly disappointed."
