Since the 2-0 win at home to Ipswich on 3rd December Bristol City in their last 13 Championship games had lost 10 and drawn two before they played Newcastle on Saturday.
In that time they also played two FA Cup games and got a 1-0 win at Fleetwood after drawing 0-0 at home initially and then they were beaten 2-0 at Burnley in the 4th round.
So for Newcastle to be 2-0 down to this team after only 21 minutes at St. James’ Park and then only draw the game 2-2 was quite simply (yet) another shocking result.
Rafa Benitez – Newcastle manager
And if we don’t get promoted this season put it down to that shocking loss of 2 points against Bristol City at home.
But we have also lost against lowly placed Wolves and Blackburn at home and drew 2-2 with QPR so we know our home form has not been good this season.
Maybe it’s good that we now have three away games coming up even if those are tough games against highly placed sides.
But if we play as badly as we did in the first half on Saturday we could lose some of the upcoming games against Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading.
And we could still make it a close finish for the two automatic promotion places.
Notice it’s what we do not what the other teams do – we are the team making mistakes at the moment by missing chances and letting in poor goals.
But it’s not time to panic and Rafa Benitez is well aware of that.
Rafa has said this today about Newcastle as reported in the Chronicle:
“You don’t expect a team that is successful, focused prepared and training well to make these mistakes.”
“When we have problems, the main thing for me is to stay calm.”
“I can be upset, I can be disappointed, but I need to analyse what we did wrong and I think we corrected it in the second half.”
“We could improve a little and it’s a question of managing our anxiety.” “We are at the top of the table and must have confidence in ourselves.”
“We just had to win and we didn’t.” “In other games we couldn’t create clear chances, but in this game I was confident once we scored the first goal.”
“The negative thing is that we have to learn how to break down these teams that come here to play like this.”
“I just have to try to stay relaxed and stay calm.” In my case I’m quite calm. I can be furious but it depends on the situation.”
“I remember I have to create solutions, not give problems.” “I try to give solutions to my players.”
“In terms of players it is a question of experience.”
“They need to know we will have games like this one and will realize in a game we have done this, but we have to do that.”
“We are not playing really well, but we have won a lot of good games.” “If you say we didn’t play well in the first half, we did in the second.”
“We played well against Norwich, but we have to be more consistent.”
Let’s hope some big lessons have been learned from Saturday and the lads can bounce back with a good result at Brighton tomorrow night.
That’s what we need.
Comments welcome.
6 comments so far
G
Feb 27, 2017 at 8:06 AM
Comment #1The thing that gives me great confidence in the next 3 games, is that historically we have always seemed to struggle against the minnows, but up our game against the sharks. The next 3 games are sharks in terms of relative success, and I think we should pick up at least 7 points.
Tsunki
Feb 27, 2017 at 8:11 AM
Comment #2Current squad Players who should understudy if we get promoted
Dummett
Colback
Yedlin
Anita
Darlow (unless he gets de-Brambled)
Krul (unless he finds his hands again)
Players to release (past it or never going to reach it)
Perez
Mitrovic
Gouffran
Sels
Gamez
Lazaar
Murphy
Sammy
Haidara
toontaff2
Feb 27, 2017 at 8:12 AM
Comment #3I’ll admit to being the first to go for a Toon win!
Tsunki
Feb 27, 2017 at 8:13 AM
Comment #4That’s just off the top of my head, I didn’t mention academy players because there isn’t one who is going to make it. Yes that includes Armstrong. There i said it. 😉
G
Feb 27, 2017 at 8:15 AM
Comment #5@4, the only academy player I think has a good future in football is McKenzie Heanney, and rumour has it that he’s away to Wolves at the end of the season. The kid is a game changer when he plays. At least he is going to a club with a good history of nurturing talent. Good luck to him.
Budge123
Feb 27, 2017 at 8:20 AM
Comment #6Seems to me that every time we claim to be focusing on the next game only we are clearly looking further ahead to ‘bigger games’ with the obvious consequences.
Our home form must be sorted out. A change of intent is needed. We have the 6th best home form 7th if Shef Wed get a point from their home game in hand.
Away from home clearly the best. But at home playing the same way isn’t working.
Thankfully the next 3 big games are away!
It’s like the total reverse of the KK years!
Play with attacking intent at home and we would be home and hosed already.