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Sam Allardyce gives his excuses – Shocking game and West Brom fail to beat Newcastle United

3 years ago
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Sam Allardyce v Steve Bruce.

The two worst managers in the Premier League producing one of the worst spectacles of the season.

Who could have guessed…?

Sam Allardyce was fired by Mike Ashley just over 13 years ago, one of his very few decent management decisions in that time.

Sadly, we are living through possibly Ashley’s very worst, imposing the clueless Steve Bruce on us.

Sam Allardyce went into this game not having lost to Newcastle United for six years, the last time when Jonas Gutierrez turned in a goalscoring match winning performance to ensure PL safety on the very final day of the season in May 2015.

Since then, Sam Allardyce has had a win (3-0 Colocconi red card) and a draw (1-1 Rafa’s only derby match when at NUFC) with Sunderland, plus two 1-0 wins against Newcastle when with Everton.

Indeed, his overall record against Newcastle since leaving St James Park, before Sunday, was Played 12 Won 7 Drawn 3 Lost 2.

As usual, Sam Allardyce is talking absolute nonsense after this terrible 0-0 draw at The Hawthorns.

Making ridiculous claims about what could and should have happened, both yesterday and the last few months since he took over at West Brom.

Sadly, Sam Allardyce is right on one point, West Brom are woeful but Newcastle were even worse. Plus Steve Bruce’s team and set-up were / are even more negative than Allardyce’s.

All credit to Steve Bruce for taking us to new depths.

Sam Allardyce:

“I can’t knock the lads too much because of the effort and having to play on Thursday against all the odds, and then to have to try produce again against Newcastle in such a massive game for us.

“It’s a big disappointment we didn’t finish Newcastle off.

“We’ve given ourselves a great platform to win games because defensively – we have started to master that side of it now.

“We are limiting the opposition to very few chances, but at the other end, we are getting into the final third, we are crossing the ball but our finishing and final pass should be better.

“We created enough chances to score one but we didn’t take one.

“We have to win the next game to stay alive.

“If we don’t win the next game, everybody will be saying it’s not mathematically impossible, but we’ll eventually get to a stage where we have to win every game that’s left.

“We all know what would be nothing short of a miracle if that happened.

“It is possible, it could be done, but it would need a humongous effort to achieve it.

“We have slipped up so many times when it comes to not converting our overall performance into three points.

“We should have four more wins, that would have been 12 points and that’s not including the Everton game.

“We could easily be sat on 27 points based on our performances.

“It’s not pie in the sky, we have been in the better positions than the opposition to win games but we failed to do so.

“I sound like a record where the needle is stuck.

“I look back at the chances we missed in the last four or five games.

“We had plenty of opportunities to see Newcastle off which we didn’t take.

“It was another big one like Brighton because we had the chance to catch three points up on Steve’s Newcastle time.

“We’re very close to turning it the other way, rather than going backwards for me. The lads have to stay confident and keep believing.

“A lot of our final ball wasn’t as good as we would’ve liked.

“We didn’t really hit the target enough against Newcastle, despite being better against them.

“We were brilliant defensively again. We just need to get the ball into the back of the net.

“You’re hearing me talk about the same things the Albion fans have heard me talking about for the last four or five games.

“It’s massively disappointing. We should have won the game and taken an extra two points.”

Stats from BBC Sport:

West Brom 0 Newcastle 0 – Sunday 7 March 12pm

Goals:

Newcastle:

West Brom:

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was West Brom 53% (52%) Newcastle 47% (48%)

Total shots were West Brom 13 (5) Newcastle 9 (4)

Shots on target were West Brom 3 (3) Newcastle 5 (2)

Corners were West Brom 9 (3) Newcastle 7 (4)

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Newcastle United:

Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett, Willock, Hayden, Shelvey, Hendrick (Gayle 57), Fraser (Carroll 90+3), Joelinton

Unused Subs:

Darlow, Ritchie, Lewis, Fernandez, Manquillo, Murphy, S Longstaff

Crowd: 00,000

(BBC Sport comments from neutrals about Steve Bruce and Newcastle after West Brom – Says it all – Read HERE)

(3 Positives and 3 Negatives from West Brom 0 Newcastle 0 – Read HERE)

(Disastrous Fulham win at Liverpool exposes Steve Bruce negativity at West Brom – Read HERE)

(Steve Bruce ‘delighted’ as Newcastle United make it 2 wins in last 18 matches – Read HERE)

(Seismic shift in Premier League relegation odds – Newcastle now favourites to go down – Read HERE)

(West Brom 0 Newcastle 0 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)

(West Brom 0 Newcastle 0 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Sunday’s draw – Read HERE)

(I had zero expectations of a decent game and Steve Bruce took us below that – Read HERE)

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