Wolves boss Gary O’Neil blasts ‘crazy’ decision to stage FA Cup fifth round ties in midweek… after Wolves lose Hee-chan Hwang to injury against Brighton

Gary O’Neil blasted the ‘crazy’ decision to stage FA Cup fifth-round ties in midweek after Hee-chan Hwang was injured during Wolves’ 1-0 win over Brighton.

Wolves will face Coventry in the last eight thanks to Mario Lemina’s goal after 77 seconds but Hwang damaged a hamstring in the second half and will miss Saturday’s trip to Newcastle in the Premier League.

Midweek fifth-round games were introduced in the 2019-20 campaign to ease fixture congestion but O’Neil believes these games are sufficiently important to merit a weekend slot.

‘This game is so big that it should take place on a Saturday at 3pm, with a week to prepare,’ said O’Neil.

‘We want to pick our strongest team without having concerns about the previous game and the one afterwards.

Hee-chan Hwang suffered a damaged hamstring during the game and was substituted in the second half

Mario Lemina scored in the second minute of the match to help Wolves claim a 1-0 victory vs Brighton

‘I’ve always been used to these games being at the weekend. When you’re a step away from the quarter-finals it’s a huge game. 

‘So to move our game against Sheffield United last weekend to Sunday pushed it even closer to this one, and made it a really tough week for us, with three games in six days.

‘To have to choose which game to put importance on is crazy. 

‘I’m sure we could have found room to play it at the weekend. Hopefully the only casualty for us is Channy (Hwang).

Lemina’s goal was enough to knock out injury-ravaged Brighton – whose goalkeeper Jason Steele missed a glorious chance to equalise in stoppage time after heading forward for a corner – and set up a quarter-final tie here against Championship club Coventry.

Yet Wolves will need to play much better than this to have a chance of lifting the FA Cup for the first time since 1960.

Despite leaving key men Pedro Neto and Craig Dawson out of the starting XI, Wolves were immediately into their stride and took the lead inside two minutes. 

Wolves have now won their last three games in all competitions, having beaten both Tottenham and Sheffield United  

Brighton, meanwhile, are winless in their last two matches, but De Zerbi said ‘he was happy with his teams performance’

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde raced away from Jan Paul van Hecke and when Jason Steele flapped at the cross, Pervis Estupinan dithered. Lemina did not and slid Wolves in front.

To make matters trickier for Wolves, Hwang pulled up after playing a pass and was immediately replaced by Neto, with Lemina also moving gingerly down the tunnel when he was substituted at the same time.

Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi said: ‘We played well in the first half but made too many mistakes in front of goal, although I’m happy with our performance, the style we played and our attitude.’