I said to the lads that last week is the start point
Our game at Cardiff tomorrow brings us up against Neil Warnock again for the first time since he brought his Rotherham team to Turf Moor in February 2016 although the manager we love to hate has also come up against us previously with Scarborough, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, QPR and Leeds.
He’s been at Cardiff for almost two years and in his first full season took them to the Premier League as runners-up to Wolves. Looking for his first league win of the season he made reference to our good 2017/18 season when he said: “The fixture list hasn’t been too kind to us; in the first ten games we’re playing nearly all of the top seven from last year. It is a little bit cruel, but we’ve got to hang in there.
“I always believe, apart from that top six, everything is winnable in this league, and Burnley are in that category. We know that Sean has got a really good work ethic, but we have to be ready for what’s coming, and hopefully we can cause them problems.”
He added: “It isn’t must win, but it’s a game that’s really important to us with the fixtures coming up. Winning your first game is always important. That’s why I’m disappointed so early on that we didn’t take our opportunities when we did have them, but then you’ve just got to stop feeling sorry for yourselves and get on with it.
“I can’t fault the lads. They’re trying as hard as they can. They’ve just got to eliminate the mistakes really and we need to make more of a game of it for the ninety minutes. That’s what we need to do, get the home crowd going too, and give them something to shout about.”
Sean Dyche spoke about the fog after the last home game but then saw his team record a first domestic win of the season a week ago with the 4-0 victory against Bournemouth.
“Don’t get me wrong, you want points on the board,” he said. “But it’s very early and people forget that. The magnification that occurs, in the Premier League particularly, on every game is like must win. must win, and then the noise changes two or three days later.
“The fact is you want to get as many points on the board as you can, but the relevance is over the season and I said to the lads that last week is the start point. We haven’t been a million miles away from it. There have been some good performances but we haven’t got the points we wanted, and maybe you could argue that we deserved, but within that you have to do the business and go and actually get what you want and we certainly did last week.”
“They’re still finding their form and finding what works for them and what doesn’t work, and we have to capitalise on that, but they are still a useful side. You can’t be in the Premier League if you aren’t a decent side.
“Neil is someone I have the utmost respect for, particularly for the number of games he’s managed and the success he’s had. I think he said it again this week about preferring the Championship, and I presume he doesn’t mean literally, but I know what he means.
“In the Championship, if you have a decent side you’re up there winning games and working for the prize of being in the Premier League, but wins in the Premier League are much harder to come by on a consistent basis because you are playing some of the giants of English football. That makes it different. Personally, I like the Premier League, but I do understand his thought and I totally respect it.
“Neil is someone I have come to know over the year and has always been fair and kind to me, so I won’t have bad words said against him. If you go back to non-league, he has managed probably 1,400 to 1,500 games. That’s enormous. He’s certainly well over a thousand in league football, so he is certainly in the position to say what he believes.”
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