Max Kilman outlines why Wolves were soundly beaten at West Ham

A first half brace from Mohammed Kudus, and a third from Jarrod Bowen, condemned Wolves to a poor defeat in which they handed the Hammers all three goals.

Kilman criticised Wolves’ disappointing play in possession and the manner in which they conceded the goals, on a difficult afternoon for the side.

He said: “It’s very tough to take. We gave the ball away too many times and it cost us.

“A bad transition, we gave the ball away too cheaply, and they caught us on the counter-attack.

“Three goals that we could have easily avoided and we should have been in the game still.

“We didn’t take care in our passes and were sloppy. You get punished in the Premier League and that’s what happened. The offside goal was unfortunate, if that goes in it could have been a bit different. It’s a difficult day.”

Wolves did improve in the second half and had much more possession and created chances, before scoring a well-worked goal through Pablo Sarabia that was chalked offside.

O’Neil was pleased with the second 45 reaction, but was clearly frustrated at the opportunities they handed to the ‘clinical’ Hammers.

“There was disastrous decision making and errors around the goals,” O’Neil added. “It made the rest of the game fairly irrelevant. There wasn’t much in the game and it was a crazy first goal to concede from our own corner. We didn’t deal with it correctly.

“On the second goal we committed an extra man forward too early and turned the ball over in a terrible situation. We managed to turn an even game into something we gifted West Ham to be 2-0 down at half-time.

“I understand people don’t want to hear me explaining how even the game was when we’ve lost 3-0, because it’s irrelevant really.

“In those big moments in the game, West Ham were far better than us, which meant the rest of the game became irrelevant.

“All the goals were from transitions – really poor. We have to improve that.

“West Ham were extremely clinical in those situations. We probably only gave them three or four but they were able to convert three of them.

“We were nowhere near good enough in those bits and to manage to lose the second half 1-0 was crazy really, after how dominant we were and we had them penned back for such a large spell.

“We kept having shots blocked and scored a really good goal. A really good move to score a goal that was deemed just offside, which is obviously a really big moment.”

Wolves now turn their attentions to a Christmas Eve showdown against Chelsea at Molineux.

The home form has been key to Wolves’ success this season and captain Kilman has urged the team to focus on that upcoming test.

“We need to look forward, we have a big game at home, so we need to be ready for that,” he added. “We’ve been good this season at home and we need to put in another good home performance next.”

Wolves hope to be boosted by the return of Pedro Neto for that game on December 24, with the star forward due to join team training this week after around two months on the sidelines with a hamstring strain.

Any return would likely see him make the bench, rather than making a starting berth, in similar fashion to Rayan Ait-Nouri’s return off the bench against the Hammers.