SLOPPY UNITED WERE UNDER THE HAMMER
NEWCASTLE KEEPER DUBRAVKA SAYS HIS SIDE WAS PUNISHED FOR SOME ‘BIG’ MISTAKES
Martin Dubravka bemoaned a “sloppy” performance from Newcastle United after Rafa Benitez’s side suffered their heaviest defeat of the season,
West Ham United won 3-0 at St James’s Park on Saturday thanks to two goals from Javier Hernandez and a strike from Felipe Anderson.
The defeat brought an end to a three-game winning run.
“It was unexpected and unfortunate,” said Dubravka.
“I don’t think we played particularly badly, but we gave them too many opportunities to score and they punished us.
“It was sloppy on our behalf, but I don’t really know what to say.
“We need to analyse the goals, have a look again at the mistakes we made, see where we need to improve.
“It was certainly not our best performance, and unfortunately we lost.”
Newcastle made a promising start, but West Ham opened the scoring in the 11th minute as protesting fans took their seats after delaying their entrance in protest against owner Mike Ashley.
Benitez’s side had chances to equalise at a soggy St James’s Park, but a second goal from Hernandez ended hopes of a comeback.
And a late strike from Anderson, superb all game, capped a miserable afternoon for Newcastle.
After the game, Benitez acknowledged the threat that Hernandez, Anderson, Marko Arnautovic and Robert Snodgrass posed on the break.
“West Ham are good on the break, but we knew that,” said manager Benitez.
“They have some quality players on the counter-attack, but we were trying to push them and trying to create some chances.
“We were too open, and they punished us for it. They have quality players, but in those circumstances you can’t give them the kind of space we did.
“Sometimes it was their four players against two of ours, and that makes it impossible.
“You get games like that sometimes, but we have to get it out of our system.”
Dubravka, however, felt there were some “good things” to take from the game.
“We have to be critical of ourselves, but I think we also showed some good things in the game,” said the goalkeeper.
“Of course, we made three or four big mistakes, and West Ham took advantage of that.
“We know we should have scored a few goals of our own, because we had the chances to do it, but we didn’t manage it.
“We felt confident beforehand, especially at home. We’d had three victories in a row, and wanted to show our fans we could give them another one, but sometimes things just don’t go the right way for you.
“Unfortunately, we lost today but we have another game on Wednesday, and that’s really good, because it helps us to get this out of our system.
“There were many things we could improve on, but we also shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves.
“There was stuff there we should be proud of. We need to draw on the three victories we had before, and I really think that this defeat against a quality team doesn’t take us back to the position we were in nearer the start of the season.”