Gary O'Neil set to discipline Rayan Ait-Nouri after pointless red card

Ait-Nouri is now banned for next week's huge trip to fellow strugglers Leicester City after being sent off at the end of Wolves' 2-1 defeat to Ipswich on Saturday.

Wolves players have lost their cool in three of their last four games with the pressure clearly mounting and O'Neil's anger was clear after the home loss.

O'Neil - who is the red-hot favourite to be the next Premier League manager sacked - said: "When the players step out of line they are heavily punished by me. Rayan will know how I feel already because getting a second yellow card and being unavailable for next week can have catastrophic consequences.

"However much stress we are under we need to keep control. I didn't see what it was for.

"We deal with things like that very seriously as you saw last week [with Lemina losing the captaincy]. It's annoying. The players need to understand the importance of making good decisions under pressure. We have enough to do or enough to fix without dealing with this."

Half of Wolves' 40 goals conceded in the Premier League this season have come from set-pieces and it was Jack Taylor's header from a corner that grabbed Ipswich all three points at Molineux.

"The set play goal I will take responsibility for if the players are stood in the right place," O'Neil said. "For some reason two of them have decided to change roles late in the game.

"That is the players' decision making under stress. They will try to find fixes for things all the time but it was a poor decision.

"You either find a way to be good enough or you get replaced, that goes for me and the players. It's the nature of the business. It's a very competitive industry. Change will come if you constantly keep falling below the level."

Ipswich are now three points above Wolves in the Premier League table and head coach Kieran McKenna said he had been looking to take advantage of the pressure on O'Neil: "You always speak about the context of the opposition, what their run's been like, how their form is and how the crowd might be.

"It's always something for away games. If a team is not doing as well as they'd like to be, you know if you start well and get the first goal the atmosphere can work against the home side. We managed that really well."

But the Wolves head coach - who was nominated for November Manager of the Month - is not concerned about his future after reportedly receiving 'full backing' from the club's hierarchy to turn things around.

"I'm not interested in my own position," he proclaimed. "I know the work I do every day and I know the situation we are in.

"I know getting this group to perform the way they did took a lot of work. People can point the finger at me but some of the responsibly has to land on the players.

"I'm comfortable with myself as a coach, my standards and what I ask of the group. I also embrace this difficult moment.

"That group downstairs need me this week to help get them into a place where they are ready to go. I will keep fighting for them and with them until I'm told not to.

"It doesn't mean I don't think I'm going to get sacked. For every [poor] result which comes the chances of me losing my job heightens. It doesn't concern me, the situation drives me to want to do better."

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