Vitor Pereira emotional after Wolves move closer to safety with West Ham win | OneFootball

Wolves boss Vitor Pereira was “emotional and very proud” of his side after they moved 12 points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone with a 1-0 win over West Ham at Molineux.

Jorgen Strand Larsen’s deflected strike in the 21st minute settled the contest against Graham Potter’s Hammers.

Pereira has taken the club from five points adrift of survival to the brink of safety since taking charge in December and the Portuguese manager could not hide his delight.

He said: “I am emotional and very proud of my team today.

“It showed the true spirit of this team, the supporters, and the connection between them and us.

“I’m a simple guy. I like to be with them (the fans), to feel that I’m part of the family and feel the happiness of the supporters.

“In this moment when I look at my team, I look at a team that at times to celebrate they are together and times to suffer they are together.”

Pereira will next take his side to Portman Road on Saturday to face third-bottom Ipswich.

Despite Wolves’ healthy advantage, Pereira does not think his side are out of the woods yet.

He added: “The most important is next game and we will try to compete and win. I feel we need to go to the next game with the right mentality.

“We cannot, even for one game, I don’t want to stop and relax because I want more points because we can play better.”

Evan Ferguson squandered a chance to give West Ham the lead on his first start for the club before Larsen fired in via a deflection off Max Kilman.

The hosts were denied a second when Marshall Munetsi rattled an effort off the upright before Potter’s second-half substitutions almost got the Hammers an equaliser.

First Niclas Fullkrug hit the crossbar before Emerson missed the follow up and their biggest chance fell for Tomas Soucek, who missed a one-on-one with Jose Sa after Toti’s mistake.

Pereira added: “Toti tried to kill me. In the end, this is why this game is fantastic game because the emotions are (up and down).”

West Ham boss Potter said: “Game of two halves. First half we weren’t happy with the performance and Wolves were good. We have a good chance to score which we don’t take.

“We had to adjust at half-time and were a lot better. We had a big chance with Tomas but nevertheless we weren’t happy with our first half.

“As a team we have to perform in the first half because if we don’t it’s hard to get points.

“The most important thing is the team plays well and get points, we haven’t done that tonight.”