It should not be a surprise to any Newcastle fan that Rafa Benitez is a winner and I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that Rafa likes winning – however the win comes about.
Yesterday was not pretty, but our lads at Rotherham finally ground out a precious 1-0 win against the bottom of the table side.
However it was so close as the the Millers hit the bar early in the game and then again five minutes from time and then Ciaran Clark cleared off the line as we survived the onslaught to get the 3 points.
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez during training session
It’s not surprising that Rotherham’s local paper The Star are reporting Newcastle did not deserve the win.
This is some of what Rafa said after the game yesterday at the New York Stadium, which was completely sold out for the game:
“It was a great, great goal.” “We won against a good team and I said before this game that Rotherham don’t deserve to be where they are.”
“They were pushing and pushing us and with that kind of play they will win games and be higher in the table.” “I enjoy winning, it doesn’t matter how.”
“To get three points is what you have to do.” “We can try to play nice football but sometimes it is not enough.”
“The game plan was to work hard and do our best in terms of physicality and tempo and then after that use your quality.”
“That is what we did.”
“It is important to win before and after the internationals as normally when you go away for a week or 10 days, if you lose it’s always worse.”
“To win against Norwich and then to win against Rotherham is massive and important for the confidence of the team.”
The attendance was 11,653 with 2,587 traveling Newcastle fans – 22% of the crowd – fabulous.
And yesterday another promotion favorite Aston Villa lost 2-0 at Preston North End and they have now gone 9 games without a win and manager Roberto Di Matteo is under pressure and possibly facing the sack.
Steve McClaren is reported to be a manager owner Dr. Tony Xia is considering for the job.
Why?
Comments welcome.
1 comment so far
Ron Knee
Oct 2, 2016 at 8:49 AM
Comment #1Why, indeed!