The scoreline yesterday in our home game against Rotherham may have shown 4-0 but as always it rarely describes the fuller picture.
Now im not going to go against the grain and say the scored flattered us in any way because it could and maybe should have been more but when people have their say on it, the danger is taking too much notice.
I actually thought that more than one of our lot thought that they could turn up and just canter through the game and allow the better players to play a crucial pass or carry the team. This created an unneeded tension.
The tension then nearly saw a struggling Rotherham side take a shock lead as our keeper made a mistake in sliding to catch a ball and look in danger of handling in the box when he really should have just cleared his line.
On saying that, the danger was averted with one of the best saves of the season albeit accidental by a combination of a foul from one of our lot enabling Karl Darlow to be grounded quicker than he expected to be. This kick started or shocked us into increasing the effort levels.
The fact that we went on to score four goals and take the foot off the pedal a fair distance from home is neither here nor there but half of the problem for us and something that manager Rafa Benitez keeps warning people of is to take one game at a time and that every team will increase effort against us.
Another part of the problem is that regularly we get opposing defeated players or managers then talking about us definitely going up or being the best team in the division but the reality of this is that we are only as good as our last game. The better teams dont believe what is written about them they just prove it with performances.
Rotherham manager Paul Warne was the latest to say that we’re going up by stating:
Newcastle have got quality throughout their team, and they`ve got pace to burn. Even when we did come forward, if it goes into the goalkeeper`s hands and he throws it out, then they`re at you with just so much pace.
Newcastle are a great team and that`s why they`ll get promoted from this league I believe. Especially at home, they`re the best team in the league, or one of the two.
If my players want to have a career at a place like this, then they need to reach the levels. That`s why I think they`ll be Premier League bound.
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