Wolves have two points from a possible 27 but have played all the top seven teams in the table.

They now have a run of fixtures where they will be looking to build momentum and climb out of the bottom three.

Fellow strugglers Crystal Palace visit Molineux next Saturday (17:30 GMT) before Wolves host bottom club Southampton the following week.

O’Neil will be targeting back-to-back wins in those two games, although he claimed after the Brighton draw that they were not “must-win” games.

“I know there’ll be a lot made of the next games,” added the Wolves boss.

“They’re not ‘must-wins’. Crystal Palace are good, they spent £30m on a striker [Eddie Nketiah] from Arsenal; Eze’s pretty good. We need to just be ready in every game.

“We treated today as a game we wanted to win. Palace will be the same. Southampton will be the same. Southampton will be tough when they come – they keep the ball forever, have a real set way of playing.

“So, there will be challenges in every game because that’s the level of the Premier League. But we just keep going. The lads will never stop.

“Coming back late gives everyone a lift. It’s only what we deserved.

“But once you score, this group can be tough to stop when they get some positive momentum and energy.

“It ended up a little bit crazy at the end but I’m delighted for the boys. To still be able to keep fighting speaks a lot.”

It’s been a rocky few weeks for Denny Hamlin, who was open in discussing why he and the team aren’t on their ‘A-game’ during this critical stage of the 2024 playoffs.

Hamlin, the winningest driver in NASCAR Cup Series history without a title, currently sits fifth of eight, 27 points below the cut-line. At Vegas, a fuel gamble allowed him to snag a top-ten finish that helped to limit the impact, but it was still an off day for Hamlin.

He hasn’t won during the playoffs yet, and unless “one or two of the guys up front stub their toe,” there likely isn’t a path for him to advance on points. So what’s going on with the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team and is it time for a change on the pit crew roster?

“No, you ride with the group you got,” said Hamlin in a Saturday media availability. “They’re certainly in a slump, for sure. But, we got to ride it out and feel like that’s the best group we can put on pit road. And certainly, it’s not due to talent or anything like that. They have all the keys they need for that. They were the best pit crew for the first quarter of this year.

“But, certainly, it’s been a lot of different issues on pit road. Pretty much most times we come down (pit road), it’s been different things, so can’t really pinpoint one consistent problem we’ve had. So, just have to see where it goes.”

Lacking the speed

Compounding the issue is the fact that Hamlin isn’t as fast we’d expect him to be. The car seems slightly off, which makes rebounding from such mistakes a much bigger challenge.

“We’re not leading laps,” explained Hamlin, who has led just five laps through the first seven races of the playoffs. But that’s not the only factor, according to the veteran driver.

“That’s definitely an indicator of speed. We haven’t done that over the last several weeks, certainly. You know, I don’t know. Again, I think some of it is schedule. We’ve had three of these typical ovals we’ve had in the series – Bristol is one of them we’ve ran top-three all day. Kansas, every time we got right at the lead, we had a bad pit stop.  And then, (Las) Vegas, obviously, was just wheels came off on that one. And that’s been seven weeks’ worth. You have the road courses. I’m not going to lead a bunch of laps there. Not going to show a ton of speed there. And then the superspeedways. So, it just feels like forever.”

But it’s important to realize that despite all of these issues, Hamlin is still in contention. Half of the playoff field has been eliminated but the No. 11 remains, as Hamlin himself points out: “…We still have a chance, even this late in the game.”

GEORGIA STANWAY insists England need to step up their game following their heaviest loss under Sarina Wiegman.

While the midfielder netted twice the Lionesses succumbed to a 4-3  friendly defeat to Germany on Friday, nine months before next year’s Euros. 

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Three of the goals conceded at Wembley during a difficult opening 29 minutes were scored by two of Stanway’s Bayern team-mates – Guilia Gwinn and Klara Buhl.

The clash ended with the reigning Euros champs, who face South Africa next shipping four for the first time under Wiegman. 

It was also the first time England conceded four times at home since falling to a 6-4 defeat by Germany in Preston in 1997.

Stanway, who scored a first-half brace, said: “My initial reaction was we just need to fix this and it doesn’t matter who was to score or what was going to happen.

“Two Bayern girls had scored so I thought I needed to do something. 

“I need to fix something. I can’t have them bragging as soon as we get back to campus. 

“As soon as we got the penalty, we got the ball rolling and we were able to get some more chances. 

“It was a hectic game. Even coming in at half time with the score, it could have been 4-4.

“Every nation is going to get better and better and having won the Euros, we’ve got a massive target on our backs.”

England’s next friendly will be a duel with South Africa at Coventry’s CBS Arena on Tuesday evening. 

Their upcoming opponents suffered a hefty friendly loss of their own, getting hammered 5-0 by Denmark. 

Stanway insists England have got things to learn ahead of the game against the 2022 Women’s Afcon champions.

And Wiegman’s side will face far sterner tests when take on the USA and Switzerland on November 30 and December 3. 

The midfielder, who sealed a May 2022 Bayern switch from Man City, added: “We need to take our game to the next level and we can’t rest. 

“This international camp so far has been intense and the game itself (on Friday) was intense. 

“It showcases we’re not there yet and we’ve still got nine months (before the next Euros). 

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“The main thing is that we’re trying to do the right things, but it’s not necessarily working.

“Maybe it’s the little tweaks that are necessary, but we’ll review it. 

“We’ll have a few days to prepare for South Africa.”

Magomed Ankalaev continued his unbeaten streak with a decision win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 and now he’s hoping he finally got Alex Pereira’s attention.

Over three rounds, Ankalaev showed he was the superior striker as he continued chipping away at Rakic and looking to set up a potential fight finishing sequence. The knockout never came but Ankalaev kept Rakic on his backfoot for the entire fight as he cruised to victory with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 in his favor.

“I kept running after him but it was really hard to catch him,” Ankalaev said about his performance. “I don’t want to say anything bad about him but I didn’t understand his striking at all. Very uncomfortable opponent for me.”

The massive light heavyweights exchanged some huge, heavy kicks early with both trying to find an opening to do maximum damage. Ankalaev was marching forward and closing the distance on the taller fighter but Rakic was doing a good job keeping him honest with some well-timed straight punches and mixing in more of those long, rangy kicks.

While Rakic kept tossing out a head kick, Ankalaev displayed good hand speed and power with his boxing as he continued leading the dance. Ankaleav continued stabbing at Rakic with a variety of punches including a stiff shot to the body that definitely got his opponent’s attention.

Ankalaev was really starting to mix up his punches, tossing out a straight right and the following with a slick left uppercut behind it. As time passed, Rakic was stuck playing defense with Ankalaev really finding his rhythm on the feet.

With less than a minute remaining in the second round, Ankalaev mashed Rakic’s face with a nasty straight left down the middle. Rakic kept thrown back at him but Ankalaev was really beginning to control the action with his superior striking.

Ankalaev stayed on the gas moving forward and unleashing more and more of those straight left hands that just kept finding a home on Rakic’s chin. As time ticked away to the final horn, Ankalaev continued to punish Rakic on the inside with heavy punches and knees as he did more than enough to ensure that he would leave Abu Dhabi with the win.

Following his latest performance to stay unbeaten for 13 consecutive fights, Ankalaev wasted no time turning his attention to the UFC light heavyweight champion with hopes that a title shot is next in 2025.

“I think I’ve done everything to deserve the next title shot,” Ankalaev said. “I’d like to tell Alex, stop running away from me. Alex, stop running away from me.”

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