‘Crazy’ - FA decision slammed as Gary O’Neil makes Premier League suggestion

Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O'Neil has slammed the decision for the FA Cup fifth round to be played midweek as he believes the fixture is prestigious enough to warrant a weekend to itself.

The Old Gold are nearing the end of an extremely busy week, with three games in the space of just seven days. Having the FA Cup clash with Brighton & Hove Albion merely plonked in the middle of two Premier League matches made it feel less important.

Even more crucially, the lack of preparation time hit Wolves hard, and having less time to recover meant O'Neil's players were more susceptible to injuries. Hwang Hee-Chan, who went off with a hamstring issue, was a victim of the poor scheduling, O'Neil thinks.

“I think I’ve always been used to it being on a Saturday. It’s a massive game for any club involved in it. Once you’re winning to get to the quarter final, it’s a huge, huge game. To move our first game of the week to a Sunday and make it even closer… I mean, it’s a really tough week," O'Neil explained. 

"Three games in six days is really tough but they’re all so important because of how well we’ve done. If we were sat 14th at the moment, maybe we’d take our focus off the league and focus on this one [FA Cup]. But it feels that with where we are and the momentum we’ve created, every game is so big.

"It’s hard to choose which game to put more importance on. It’s crazy. We could’ve found room to play at the weekend but hopefully the only casualty is Changy," O'Neil continued.

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The suggestion from Wolves, it appears, was the trip to Newcastle United should have been moved to a different date to allow the FA Cup game against Brighton to be played on the weekend. As it is, however, earlier FA Cup rounds will regularly be played on a weekday evening.