Best game of the season so far! - My thoughts on the Preston game

Some people might disagree, but despite Preston not providing much threat, it was great because, not only did we win 6-0, the atmosphere was great, and many players would have gotten a massive confident boost from the game.

This is why doing well in cups is important, not just because of the potential of silverware, but to give the fringe players a true chance and the fans extra entertainment.

Ratings -

Sels - 7 - Not a great deal to do but did much better in the air today than usual. More confidence and also a great save towards the end to keep his clean sheet.

Yedlin - 7 - Good defending and excellent threat on the attack as well.

Hanley - 7 - Strong performance.

Mbemba - 7 - Solid.

Dummett - 7 - Did well today. I'm starting to feel a bit more confident in him now.

Colback - n/a - Did decent when on. Hope he's ok.

Hayden - 7.5 - This guy looks great in terms of intercepting passing and making strong challenges. He's also a decent attacking threat. He makes great runs and almost scored a great goal today. He looks like an excellent buy.

Shlevey - 7.5 - Beautiful passing, and despite Rafa initially wanting him to stay off, he changed the game very much with more passes that the opposition just can't deal with.

Atsu - 7 - Good work rate. Unlucky not to have a goal. Some great skills but needs more work.

Diame - 7.5 - He's so frustrating. He literally plays like Shola at times, but two great goals today.

Ritchie - 7 - Fantastic work rate. Good shift.

Mitro - 8.5 - I really am glad that he's getting another chance. He's shown great promising at times, and is showing he can be a different kind of threat. He should have had his hattrick easily but 2 good goals, especially the 2nd goal. Great composure and finish. He also set up quite a few chances. Good target man play. The crowd love this kid.

Perez - n/a - Good goal to cap things off.

Benitez - 8 - Sexy bastard.

Motm - MITRO'S ON FIRE.

HIGHLIGHTS HERE -

 

Atsu MOM. Mitro was good, but 3 or 4 players were better than him tonight.

 

Preston reserves ! one player from Sat in their team, and down to 10 men after 27 mins !, avoid ALL premier league teams in the draw mind. get to the final like us in 2014.

 

Preston were terrible but we were fabulous

 

Just watched the highlights on the way into work. Thanks for that - you are doing a great public service by posting these.
That Diame miss was one of the worst I have ever seen, not because it was just a simple tap in but because it was like he forgot everything he had ever learnt about playing football as he lined up the shot. It was like watching a penalty shoot out at an England game.

 

Nothing to compare to the Cabaye pass to the Newcastle goalkeeper last season , that will always be the classic

 

You obviously haven't watched the highlights video if you think that. As it might be painful just watch from about 2.25. Although you may wish to watch the full video so you can get a feel for what a proper match looks like. BTW those moments when the ball goes between the two posts into that net thing and the players start celebrating - those are called GOALS. Thought I better point that out as you may have forgotten what those look like. If you score more of those than the opposition its called a WIN - I know you haven't seen one of those for a long time. In fact it may interest you to know that Newcastle have won a Premier League game more recently than Sunderland (and we were kicked out of that League back in May).

 

Atsu was easily an 8 or 9. Best player on the pitch. May have been Preston reserves but we truly put them to the sword. We just have to be on guard for Saturday. They will be like a wounded dog.

 

First time I really paid attention to Hayden, he looks some player, strong, fast, fearless, good range of passing, can cross, looks a threat in the air, looks an absolutely steal of a buy right now. We should also buy Atsu, just for his pace alone, he's unsettling. I don't know how his defending is, I assume it's suspect and thats why he never got a look in in the premier league but that's something people can learn.

Diames had some glaring misses this season, but so what? He still gets in there and he will get goals, he also creates massive problems for the opposition defence, at least in this league. And remember when he was at West Ham, for a while he was reguarly amongst the goals.

 

Sorry but I just cannot get excited over Newcastle beating Ten men from a team halfway down the second division, though I can understand you being thankful for small mercies , after the ignominy of last season

 

Lets see how well your lot do next season in the Championship. Another year without derbies beckons methinks.

 

It was a proper good game, I think we had the match won before the sending off, I was quite confident, but then when they went down to ten it got silly, we were relentless, they didn't even try and contain us. Grayson obviously still told preston to press where possible, but we punished them for it. I really do think 6-0 flatters preston, the three of the woodwork would have made 9, diame's miss 10 and then the amount of chances mitro had to get a hat-trick, really coulda been 11/12.

4.543 Billion years old this planet, and we are on it at the same time as mitro, everyone should count themselves as very lucky!

Did anyone see him dancing when they played Gala and the crowd sang Mitro's on fire?

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;MITRO&#39;S ON FIRE&quot; <a href="[a href="&mdash'>https://t.co/cRa5ak6srt">pic.twitter.com/cRa5ak6srt</a></p>&mdash; Black&amp;WhiteBarmy (@BlackWhiteBarmy) <a href="October'>

 

I was impressed that we managed to hold on for the win because once Preston had their first shot on goal after 85 minutes it looked like the come back was on.

 

Are you happy with Moyes Fredor?

I am....

 

I'd rather be where we are looking up than being a Mackem looking down.

 

Last season for instance, if we were in sunderland's form, a game like Preston in the cup would be daunting, we would probably lose 1-0 and the fans would be going mental and rightly so. whereas now we are winning games on the bounce and yeah we aren't beating PL teams, but how many times have we lost to lower league opposition, all we can do now is beat who is in front of us. If the Mackems wanna b!tch about us player lower league teams, fine, the end of the day, id rather have confidence and a good feel about the club over being in the PL and not winning a game for months on end

 

Comes down to pure envy. We are in the spotlight for all the right reasons. We are winning games and looking up.

 

I was very impressed by Hayden early this season, really surprised that he's been dropped to the bench.

The match....well Preston's second string and very much played like a second string. 7 changes to us, but underlined the squad depth that we could have easily played this as a first team in the league. Excellent game for Mitro and Diame, time for them both to kick on from here.....should have been a Diame hat-trick, never thought I'd say that!

Disappointing that Colback got injured and will no doubt miss the next game, and unfortunate that as a result Shelvey couldn't be fully rested. The first team will be a different beast on Saturday, but if Shelvey and Hayden can be fit again for it, we've a great chance.[/QUOTE]

 

To date I would have to say No, but have always thought that season end results are much more important than early results , as indeed they were last season, make hay while the sun shines but remember winter is yet to come , when push comes to shove Sunderland will once again show their mettle regardless of the tears shed by Newcastle supporters

 

If you keep chopping down trees eventually your axe will become blunt