bedlington mackem
Striker
1. West Ham ( H ) - When the computers gave us home to the Hammers on opening day I think most of thought we couldnt have hand picked a fixture ourselves.....as so it proved. A really composed and clinical performance but with two highlights for me. One - The fact that Eliza, BDB and Wilson all scored continuing their great end of season form a few months earlier was crucial to their own and the teams confidence going forward. Two - the performances of Xhaka and Alderete...the former didnt disappoint and showed his class immediately....we knew we were in good hands. The latter had us salivating with literally his first touch after coming on and we knew immediately we had a bagged a bargain.
Our crowd of course were also tremendous and while we ourselves said "wow" at the end of the game , the players came off that pitch thinking the same about our support - instant connections were made and this was absolutely crucial in how our season panned out
2. Burnley (A) - Again another fixture we would have looked to get points from, particularly after our opening day win. Regrettably we quickly learned that if we dont take our chances when on top, we will get punished. Seelts last game for us and while his injury was unfortunate his omission from the team was crucial . Post match this result underlined the mantra that we would need to "stay humble" - buzz words for us all season and that attitude again was incredibly important after every match regardless of the result
3. Brentford (H) - Another game for us at home with the real potential to claim all 3 points...and how huge this turned out to be. Not only did we come from behind to win, but we did it by scoring in the last minute continuing the trend from the play offs. Bedlam again at the SOL. Notable also for the penalty save by Roefs ...poor penalty though it was he guessed right and Patterson was being quickly forgotten.
4. Palace (A) - On paper our toughest fixture so far and never an easy place to go. Roefs had a superb game and confirmed we were in his safe hands. Our second clean sheet in 4 games we looked solid and hard to beat which was going to bear well as the season progressed
5. Villa (H) - Although Villa had started poorly we knew we would be in for a tough game. Reinildos petulance made it that much tougher but crucially we found away to equalize and take a point with just 10 men. Another huge result as it preserved our unbeaten start at home and underlined our fighting qualities. This team has tenacity
6. Forest (A) - An indifferent start for Forest coupled with only 1 defeat in 5 for us meant we went to the City ground with confidence growing. To come away with all 3 points ( our first away win ) and another clean sheet was massive....and in truth we never really looked troubled.
We now had 11 points from 6 games and were 5th in the table. We totally had capitilized on these opening fixtures and they laid the foundation of the success that was ultimately to follow.
The win at Chelsea two games later was also monumental in that it our first victory against one of the "big 6", our second away win in 3 matches, but more than that thoroughly deserved. We were flying both on the pitch and in the stands
Thank you supercomputer for those fixtures..... I doubt we will get similar luck this season coming ..but that shouldnt really matter as we know we have a team and manager that can compete at this level
Haway the Lads !
Our crowd of course were also tremendous and while we ourselves said "wow" at the end of the game , the players came off that pitch thinking the same about our support - instant connections were made and this was absolutely crucial in how our season panned out
2. Burnley (A) - Again another fixture we would have looked to get points from, particularly after our opening day win. Regrettably we quickly learned that if we dont take our chances when on top, we will get punished. Seelts last game for us and while his injury was unfortunate his omission from the team was crucial . Post match this result underlined the mantra that we would need to "stay humble" - buzz words for us all season and that attitude again was incredibly important after every match regardless of the result
3. Brentford (H) - Another game for us at home with the real potential to claim all 3 points...and how huge this turned out to be. Not only did we come from behind to win, but we did it by scoring in the last minute continuing the trend from the play offs. Bedlam again at the SOL. Notable also for the penalty save by Roefs ...poor penalty though it was he guessed right and Patterson was being quickly forgotten.
4. Palace (A) - On paper our toughest fixture so far and never an easy place to go. Roefs had a superb game and confirmed we were in his safe hands. Our second clean sheet in 4 games we looked solid and hard to beat which was going to bear well as the season progressed
5. Villa (H) - Although Villa had started poorly we knew we would be in for a tough game. Reinildos petulance made it that much tougher but crucially we found away to equalize and take a point with just 10 men. Another huge result as it preserved our unbeaten start at home and underlined our fighting qualities. This team has tenacity
6. Forest (A) - An indifferent start for Forest coupled with only 1 defeat in 5 for us meant we went to the City ground with confidence growing. To come away with all 3 points ( our first away win ) and another clean sheet was massive....and in truth we never really looked troubled.
We now had 11 points from 6 games and were 5th in the table. We totally had capitilized on these opening fixtures and they laid the foundation of the success that was ultimately to follow.
The win at Chelsea two games later was also monumental in that it our first victory against one of the "big 6", our second away win in 3 matches, but more than that thoroughly deserved. We were flying both on the pitch and in the stands
Thank you supercomputer for those fixtures..... I doubt we will get similar luck this season coming ..but that shouldnt really matter as we know we have a team and manager that can compete at this level
Haway the Lads !
