Allardyce on... Manchester United
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 23rd March 2014
By: Staff Writer
The supporters aren't the only ones beginning to look back over their
shoulders at the chasing pack following a third successive defeat. Sam
Allardyce explained why he's concerned too in his post-match press
conference, which we bring you in full below...
Sam: I think the goals knocked the stuffing out of the team to a certain
extent?
I think you're right, up until the end of the first half. We tried our best
at the start of the second half, especially the first 15 minutes, but when
Man United are 2-0 up they can sit back and defend what they've already got.
We found that really difficult to break down and couldn't really open up the
opportunity to score a goal, get back in the game and get something out of
it.
Such a wonderful goal from Wayne Rooney so early on was a bit of a sickener
- and I thought it was a blatant foul on James Tomkins who was easily going
to head the ball away. Rooney took him off his balance when he jumped so he
missed the header so technically the referee's made a big error, in the end,
as far as I'm concerned because the opposition have scored from that error.
Then we pushed on and tried to get back in the game. It changes in split
seconds; we could have had a penalty, the ball's come back in the box and
Kevin [Nolan's] looking to try and strike the ball at goal but Fletcher gets
across him. Then they go up the other end, Mark Noble mis-controls and
mis-kicks his clearance straight to Wayne Rooney and what might have been a
penalty with us getting back to 1-1 leaves us 2-0 down instead.
As hard as we tried in the second half we couldn't find a way through and in
the end we're obviously disappointed we've lost. Having won the last three
games at home here we felt confident today that we might get something if we
played our best, but it didn't happen.
I know you felt it was a foul but nobody expected Wayne Rooney to go and do
that?
Nobody expected Rooney to do that, not even David Moyes, but when he did it
was brilliant.
Are you disappointed that the team didn't show more in the second half?
No. We couldn't have shown much more because we had more possession than
them, put more crosses in the box than them, created more attempts at goal
that them. Unfortunately we didn't create any clear-cut chances though, so
our cutting edge wasn't quite good enough.
Are you disappointed that they had a make-shift defence but you didn't
really get on top of them?
We after you've got a 2-0 lead you can sit [deep] like they did, with two
banks of four and just protect what you've got. We took the game to them to
try and get the goal that would get us back to 1-1, but they defended well
and hit us on the counter attack for a second.
It's a shame, but the defining moments in the game went their way today with
the referee's help and by a hugely-talented player who scored one of the
best goals you'll see this season. We have to accept that Manchester United
were better than we were today, as is often the case when you play them.
How big does that result make the next two games against Hull and
Sunderland?
They're massive games because we've got 31 points after 30 games. My
instruction to the lads is to always make sure you keep your points total
ahead of your games total.
When we had that run of games where we won four on the trot we put a lot of
points between our games total. Now we've lost three on the trot and are
back to being just one point ahead of our games total, so we've got to try
and make sure we make it 31 games and 34 points on Wednesday night.
Thank you.
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Moyes on... West Ham United
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 23rd March 2014
By: Staff Writer No.2
It appears that the massed ranks of the nations football press corps were
all looking the other way as Rooney shoved Tomkins in the back. Either that
or it just slipped their collective minds in the post-match press
conference....
David: that was some goal. You must be delighted?
Yeah, it was a great goal from a top, top player. His technical ability, his
awareness to know where the goalkeeper is during the build-up. You'd never
have thought he'd have known where the goalkeeper is. And then to execute it
and have the power to do that. My only worry was the bounce. Whether it
would go under the bar or not. It was a great goal.
Any though on whether it was better than Beckham's?
I was just saying I actually enjoyed his second goal today. I wouldn't
comment on whether it was better than Beckham's or not. He got into the box
- ok he got a bit fortunate but all the top centre forwards get a bit
fortunate. The [first] goal will take centre stage but I thought our
performance today was pretty good.
The disappointment was that we didn't score more. Sinjhi [Kagawa] had a good
chance. Mata had a good chance. Fellaini should have scored from a header
before that. So before we scored we had a chance to score other goals
You say that there was a suggestion that there was a bit of fortune about
that second goal?
Possibly. But if it was due it was overdue. I will say that our football had
merited the goals. We'd had opportunities and I was thinking "och you can't
have these opportunities without taking them". It was good to see us making
those opportunities because we've not been making them. We scored three at
West Brom. Three against Olympiakos and now a couple today. So we're now
showing signs of doing it better.
Was the pleasing thing that they might have been too confident after
Wednesday coming into today?
If anything they picked up on the performance from midweek. We stepped up
again. I think a lot of players given an opportunity earlier on in the
season and maybe didn't do so well played very well today. It makes the job
easier when you know that everybody is ready and we're going to need that
with the games we have coming up in the weeks to come.
Michael Carrick at centre half?
He made the job look very easy today. Him and Fellaini tag-teamed Andy
Carroll today and did a really good job in trying to limit him as best they
could.
You must be looking forward to the derby game?
You can see that we're playing better. There's more belief coming back. We
have to keep showing that if we can. It's a quick turnaround so we'll
recover and prepare for Tuesday night.
Do you think Rooney prospered from Robin Van Persie's absence?
I don't think anyone prospers from Van Persie's absence. He's a top player
and will be a massive miss for us in the coming month or so.
Thanks, guys.
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Monday, March 24
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