Vitor Pereira said he is feeling the challenge of keeping Wolves in the Premier League “with my heart” after they took a significant step towards survival with a 2-1 victory at rock-bottom Southampton.
Jorgen Strand Larsen’s brace moved Wanderers nine points clear of third-bottom Ipswich, with Paul Onuachu pulling a goal back for Southampton, who are now without a win since the start of February.
“It was very important for us in this moment in the season,” Pereira said. “I think it was difficult for sure, we suffered a bit in the last 10 because we wanted to keep the three points.
“I think in this moment it was important to make the difference and have the difference to the other teams.
“Nine points is better than six (the gap to the bottom three). We can keep the nine points and try to be consistent. In this league we can’t sleep, we can’t go into games thinking that we can wait for results, we must fight, we must deserve the victory.
“This club doesn’t deserve relegation, the people of this club don’t deserve it. I’m feeling this with my heart and it’s a project I want to take with both hands.”
Strand Larsen’s 19th-minute opener came after he rose highest to meet Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s cross, with his second-half strike putting him on nine for the season.
Pereira was full of praise for the Norwegian striker, saying: “In the last game he didn’t perform at this level because he got an injury. He broke a bone in his hand two days before Everton but he told us he wanted to try.
“For a striker it’s impossible to do work with a broken hand.
“Today, one week after, he adapted, he didn’t have the same pain as the Everton game, he’s a player with a strong personality and he proved that he’s a team player and he has quality.
“It was not only the goals, for me he worked defensively and offensively.”
Southampton sit on nine points and are on track to beat Derby’s 11-point total – the lowest tally in a single Premier League campaign.
“I was a lot more optimistic of course,” Juric said when asked if he thought the job would be this challenging when he took over from Russell Martin in December.
“It’s a tough moment for everybody, we were a lot more optimistic and now it’s difficult.
“We’re really disappointed. I don’t know what to say, there’s always something missing. We started good but we conceded after 20 minutes and it’s really hard.”
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