The moment of truth
THERE’S STILL WORK TO DO BEFORE WE CAN CELEBRATE SAYS RAFA
RAFA Benitez is a great believer that football can sometimes be a state of mind.
Nobody was as disappointed and downbeat as Benitez last Monday night after Newcastle’s season looked like it was imploding.
But since then, Huddersfield Town have softened the blow for United by conceding a late equaliser at Derby County and then crumbling at home to Fulham on Saturday.
The picture has changed significantly in just a week – and Newcastle haven’t even kicked a ball!
Indeed, the Terriers could have trimmed the gap down to just two points going into tonight’s game with Preston North End.
Instead, they have slipped down the table to fifth while Newcastle are on the brink of automatic promotion.
Now it is all about the performance levels for Benitez.
“We have to be consistent with our message and the way we do things,” he said.
“We are where we are because we did a lot of very good things during the season.
“It could be better but we made mistakes – also some decisions went against us.
“We’re still in a great position, we’re in the driving seat and it depends on us.
“And the message from me is similar, why were we playing so well against Leeds and not Ipswich? “We must replicate what we did against Leeds. “We were talking about the mistakes we made against Ipswich and we trained around that. “We have watched the clips on what we did wrong. Now we must try to do the things we did right against Leeds.”
Ipswich summed up how teams approach games against Newcastle in the Championship.
Quite simply, they up their game when they face the Magpies.
After putting on their best display of the season against United at Portman Road on Monday, they reverted to type by losing against rock-bottom and already-relegated Rotherham.
But Benitez feels Newcastle’s defeat against the Tractor Boys was down to their reaction after hauling themselves back into the game thanks to Daryl Murphy.
The players were taken into the TV analysis room again this week in a bid to iron out the mistakes creeping back into their performances.
Benitez feels leaving David McGoldrick with so much freedom was a big factor in the loss against Mick McCarthy’s side.
Benitez said: “We made another mistake. That was key.
“Sometimes football is a state of mind. It is about certain moments.
“Look back, we scored through Daryl Murphy, we were controlling the game and then we made a mistake.
“We then gave them a chance to score a goal and they took it.
“Then you lose your momentum and you try hard but make mistakes.
Sometimes football is a state of mind. It’s about certain moments. You lose your momentum. You make mistakes. Rafa Benitez
With the manager we have got, I knew from the start the aim was to get into the Premier League Isaac Hayden
“They scored again in the last minute but it was our mistakes that cost us the game.”
When asked if he’d left players to their own devices during the immediate aftermath of the Ipswich loss, Benitez said: “No, no. We have to talk.
“Everybody was disappointed and we spoke about everything we did wrong.
“The first thing is to realise what we did wrong. After it, we try to correct it on the training ground.
“The main thing is not to make mistakes.
“But then when you make them, you have to understand why. You have to avoid them in the future and do things right as soon as possible.”
Benitez is confident of a good show against Preston after a week of work at the training ground.
He said: “To have one week to prepare is normally something you don’t have.
“It allows you to work on things like set-pieces.
“You can send your message across more times. “It’s more positive. “On the other hand, Preston have had the same situation so we will see.”