Poyet felt his players took advantage of Newcastle's squad availability...
Albion boss Gus Poyet was impressed with the way his players took advantage of an under-strength Newcastle team to progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
The Magpies were missing a number of first-team regulars but Poyet was impressed with the way his players took advantage and executed the result.
He told seagulls.co.uk, “It’s always special when you beat a Premier League team but we were a bit lucky. With all respect to the players that played they did not have the likes of Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini, Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba not playing - what a team that would have been.
“We knew it was a great opportunity to beat a Premier League team and we had to take it, which we did. Today was more about us than it was about the opposition and we deserved it overall from the way that we played.
“They had so many players missing so we had to impose our game and pass the ball rather than let it be a 50/50 game, against a side that is physically better than us. The idea was to keep the ball and it worked very well for large periods, especially in the first half.
“We had to look at their shape and then we had to find the space and go and play. We knew they were going to come into the game at some point, and when that happened we had to be strong, but we did that very well. That was down to the players and I’m very happy with them.”
Spanish midfielder Andrea Orlandi opened the scoring with an inspired volley, with the outside of the left foot and his back to goal, and the Uruguayan was pleased that the crowd was rewarded with a moment of brilliance.
“His finish was enough for people who came along today. When people pay for a ticket they want to get value for their money and he produced that today. You want to see something different and he gave the fans something different today.
“That’s Andrea because we know what he can do. It was 50/50 whether he would play today and we needed to keep the ball so he was very important to us. The timing of the goal was very good for us as well. He was top quality.
“Now we look forward to the draw; the players want the biggest team away but I want us to play the smallest team at home. We will see what happens tomorrow.”
Original article
Albion boss Gus Poyet was impressed with the way his players took advantage of an under-strength Newcastle team to progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
The Magpies were missing a number of first-team regulars but Poyet was impressed with the way his players took advantage and executed the result.
He told seagulls.co.uk, “It’s always special when you beat a Premier League team but we were a bit lucky. With all respect to the players that played they did not have the likes of Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini, Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba not playing - what a team that would have been.
“We knew it was a great opportunity to beat a Premier League team and we had to take it, which we did. Today was more about us than it was about the opposition and we deserved it overall from the way that we played.
“They had so many players missing so we had to impose our game and pass the ball rather than let it be a 50/50 game, against a side that is physically better than us. The idea was to keep the ball and it worked very well for large periods, especially in the first half.
“We had to look at their shape and then we had to find the space and go and play. We knew they were going to come into the game at some point, and when that happened we had to be strong, but we did that very well. That was down to the players and I’m very happy with them.”
Spanish midfielder Andrea Orlandi opened the scoring with an inspired volley, with the outside of the left foot and his back to goal, and the Uruguayan was pleased that the crowd was rewarded with a moment of brilliance.
“His finish was enough for people who came along today. When people pay for a ticket they want to get value for their money and he produced that today. You want to see something different and he gave the fans something different today.
“That’s Andrea because we know what he can do. It was 50/50 whether he would play today and we needed to keep the ball so he was very important to us. The timing of the goal was very good for us as well. He was top quality.
“Now we look forward to the draw; the players want the biggest team away but I want us to play the smallest team at home. We will see what happens tomorrow.”
Original article