The five most heartbreaking moments of the 2023/24 Wolves campaign ranked.
Gary O’Neil has made a big first impression in his first season at Molineux. Despite coming in with relatively little experience, the Wolves manager has guided the club to a mid-table finish.
The Old Gold were even in the hunt for European football at one point as Wolves’ first team tore through the opposition at will.
While Wolves’ season has certainly been an enjoyable one, there have been plenty of moments that fans will want quickly erased from their memories.
From missed opportunities to tear goodbyes, this article ranks the most heartbreaking and frustrating moments of Wolves’ 2023/24 campaign.
5. Gary O’Neil oversees humiliating home defeat to Brighton
While usually a manager’s first home game is filled with optimism, nothing could have been further from the truth for O’Neil.
After a 1-0 defeat away to Man United on the opening day, Wolves hosted Brighton as the manager introduced himself to the home crowd.
Unfortunately, his first match at Molineux was not a successful one. Just months after losing 6-0 to the Seagulls, Brighton once again put Wolves to the sword.
Kaoru Mitoma put the visitors ahead before Pervis Estupinan added another a minute into the second half. Solly March then netted a brace before Hwang Hee-Chan pulled a goal back, however, the result was all but decided.
It was a terrible first audition for O’Neil in front of the Molineux crowd. Thankfully, the manager soon turned things around.
4. Championship side Ipswich stun Wolves with Carabao Cup comeback
Going into the cup, many fans had little faith that O’Neil could turn the season around. The manager had only one Premier League victory to his name and had just given Luton their first point of the season.
As a result, the cup was seen as a pleasant distraction with O’Neil stating that he was ‘desperate’ to go through.
At Portman Road, things could not have started better with the visitors 2-0 up after Hwang Hee-Chan and Toti Gomes’ goals after 15 minutes.
However, this lead soon collapsed. Poor goalkeeping from Dan Bentley allowed the hosts to level the scoreline before half-time.
Then, in the second half, Jack Taylor sent a long-distanced strike into the roof of the net to send the Tractor Boys through.
The travelling Wolves fans were fuming with boos targetted at the squad and O’Neil. It seemed as if the manager’s reign was all but over with Man City up next.
Little did they know O’Neil had a master plan up his sleeve…
3. Pedro Neto suffers second hamstring injury
Injuries have been the biggest talking point of 2024 for Wolves fans. After such a promising start to the new year, injuries put a stop to anything special happening in Wolverhampton.
At the time of writing, O’Neil still has multiple Wolves first-teamers out on the sidelines. Each player has had a vital role at some point in the campaign. However, no absentee was a bigger kick in the teeth than Pedro Neto.
The winger had already missed a big chunk of the campaign with a hamstring injury after being forced off against Newcastle. However, by the time Wolves were set to face Fulham, Neto was almost back to his best.
The match was the final game before Wolves’ FA Cup quarter-final, yet, things were about to go horribly wrong.
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde was the first to be forced off before Neto soon pulled up holding his hamstring.
The club were already without Matheus Cunha and Hwang Hee-Chan ahead of the FA Cup match, so for Wolves to now be missing another star player was unthinkable.
2. Ruben Neves sends tearful goodbye
Right at the very start of the campaign, Wolves had to say goodbye to arguably its biggest modern legend.
Ruben Neves had been at the club since the 2017/18 season where he played a major part in sending Wolves back to the Premier League.
From here, he only continued to impress with the midfielder helping to guide the club back to Europe.
In his final season at Wolves, Neves became the captain and ensured that the side stayed in the Premier League despite initial fears of the drop.
As the end of his contract neared and the club’s FFP problems worsened, Wolves decided to cash in on their star man. Neves moved to Saudi side Al-Hilal to bring an end to an unforgettable six years at the club.
Before he departed, Wolves released a tearful video of Neves saying goodbye which only pulled at fan’s heartstrings further.
1. Coventry end Wolves’ party at Molineux with a late comeback
The most gut-wrenching moment of the 2023/24 campaign for Wolves was easily their FA Cup defeat.
Most fans outside of the ‘big six’ dream to one day see their team lift a trophy. Many fans at Molineux are yet to witness this feat with Wolves’ last major trophy coming in 1980. However, Wolves were presented with a potential opportunity to end this streak this season in the FA Cup.
Despite a terrible performance, O’Neil’s side managed to squeeze in front just before injury time thanks to Rayan Ait-Nouri and Hugo Bueno’s goals.
However, the game then collapsed on the hosts as the visitors netted twice deep into added time to win 3-2.
The Molineux crowd was shocked as the club went from three minutes away from Wembley to crashing out of the competition.
Since then, Wolves haven’t really recovered with the side only winning once since the defeat.