I’m not bothered about having another fixture to play
Burnley earned a draw and a replay in today’s FA Cup tie against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light and both of the two managers gave their views after the game which means the two will meet yet again a week on Tuesday.
Sunderland boss David Moyes, who was looking for a win after his side held Liverpool to a draw five days ago, said: “It was a disappointing game all round. I thought we played some good football at times in the first half but we dropped off in the second half.
“Whether that was a follow on from the game earlier in the week against Liverpool, I’m not sure, but we didn’t really get up to speed today.
“The game was always going to be like that, the game at Burnley the other week was just like that, expected we conceded goals. We’ll take a positive that we didn’t concede any goals today and we got a clean sheet.”
He added: “We were at home today and we wanted to win. The replay comes in the middle of two important games for us, but so be it, things happen for a reason, you never know what’s best. We go again and let’s hope we can get to the next round.”
Sean Dyche opted to make six changes to the team that had lost at Manchester City last Monday but was pleased with the way his chosen team played and was certainly not too concerned about having another fixture added to the schedule.
“I’m not bothered about having another fixture to play,” he said. “We’ve just come out of the Championship where you are constantly playing. In the Premier League we do have some breaks and generally it’s week to week, rather than Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday. When a game comes along, we take on the challenge and see what comes.
“I am pleased to be at Turf Moor as many times as we can, but I’m also pleased because today we made changes and people who haven’t played for a while delivered really good performances. It was a good spectacle from my point of view because I felt we gave a good performance.”
On the subject of the changes, he added: “We’d had two big games in three days and others who have been carrying minor knocks, so we thought this was an opportunity, not by any standards to take this lightly, to make sure that everyone, as a collective, gets a chance to play.
“If we get injuries, as we have today, it’s important that we have players who are up and running. They have great pride in how they look after themselves, let alone the work we do with them, and the fitness was very good.”
He added: “Tendayi was excellent, along with Nick Pope who got a nice clean sheet. Tarky was solid. Steven Defour got his first 0- minutes for the club, which is important. It’s vital that with our strength of depth, and in terms of fitness and mentality, that players know they can come into the side and still be productive and there were good signs of that.
“I think they went with what looks like the strongest side they could get out today and I was pleased that our players competed well against the opposition. These are tight games, but I felt we did enough to win it because we had two or three great chances at the end and Tarky’s header takes a nick before it hits the post.
“We had enough golden chances though over the game and we usually take them. We had a really strong hold on the game, particularly in the last 15 minutes, so I’m pleased with the fitness and some of the play, so other than the result, I was pleased with the group today.
“These are important times away from home. The past two or three away from home we’ve shown signs of what we’re about and taking that feeling we have at home away with us. I thought that was definitely on show today.”
Follow UpTheClarets:Share this page :