WOLVES boss Gary O’Neil credited his former side AFC Bournemouth for beating his current employers, sharing how he felt both teams have enjoyed “successful seasons”.

Antoine Semenyo’s first-half goal proved the difference at Molineux in a 1-0 win for Cherries on Wednesday night.

Prior to the start of this season O’Neil was sacked as Cherries head coach, the club opting to move forward with incumbent Andoni Iraola.

National media viewed the move as unfair at the time, with O’Neil guiding Cherries to survival in his first season as a senior head coach.

O’Neil was not out of a job long before being appointed Wolves boss on the eve of the season, where his initial performances led to further questions over Cherries’ decision to swap managers.

However, Iraola’s appointment has clearly come good, with Bournemouth now on the cusp of setting a new club record for points in a Premier League season.

Asked if he feels the narrative surrounding the fixture will continue beyond this season, O’Neil told the Daily Echo: “I'm not sure.

“In my head, it never, ever comes up. It's just a game.

“I see some people that I know and say hello and wish them all well.

“Good to see some of the players, but it doesn't make any difference to me who we're playing.

“We’ve won one this year, lost one. We've done that against a few other teams, just part of the fixtures.

“Both probably had successful seasons so far and both keen to finish it as strongly as possible.”

Despite labelling his side’s performance as their worst of the campaign, O’Neil went on to praise the opposition.

“Credit to Bournemouth as well because they've had a fantastic season,” he restarted.

“I think they've got some fantastic players.

“The coach has done a really good job. Still some really good people there that I managed to see.

“While my focus is obviously on Wolves and trying to make us better, a big win for Bournemouth and continues their successful season.

“Probably our worst performance of the season, I thought.

“Too many individuals below the normal level or the level that we've been able to reach so far.

“Especially first half, just turning the ball over so many times under no pressure.

“Not being able to cope with duels. Bournemouth went long a lot into Solanke and Semenyo, and we weren't able to really win the first one cleanly.

“And then second ball they landed on better than us.

“So if you couple losing a lot of duels with turning the ball over an unbelievable amount of time – it’s probably the most amount of times this season under no real pressure as well which was surprising.

“So a long way below the normal level for the first half. Second half managed a bit of a response.”