Monday 21 September 2009

Hughes on the derby

Rousing stuff from the manager:

“We will be stronger as a result of today, not weaker,” Hughes said. “We have got the means and the resources and the will to be better in the future.

“We know we can have an excellent season this year. We wanted to start quickly and start well and give ourselves an opportunity to do something special later in the season. We still believe we can do that.

"We are not going away any time soon. We are going to be around for a long time."
I agree. We just need a good result on Wednesday to get everyone re-focussed.

6 comments:

. said...

I agree Jack . I'm already so bored of the whole time thing re Owen's goal. lets face it, United deserved to win, and we can take lots of poitives from the game. It was never the be all and end all (5 games in FFS!). Lets beat Fulham on weds and concentrate on wets ham and ville, two really important games.

BlueRain said...

Let's be honest, this week's result was difficult to take but the best team won on the day. Despite the fact that the ref played an extra seven minutes (or was that 7 days?) we could have used that same time to our own advantage. What is very clear is that City are, at last, really heading in the right direction. And Old Red Nose is starting to worry -- as was displayed by kind of Irish jig that would make Michael Flatey blush. What's important now is that City re-focus and sort out thoe defensive frailties so clearly displayed at Old Trafford; we simply must be better at defending set plays. We need to burn the midnight oil and work as hard as it takes to better ourselves defensively. But don't forget; we are a very new team and two very important players were not available on Sunday. Oh, and United have to come to Eastlands yet!

Wigan Blue said...

The press have been working overtime to justify the 7 minutes. All I would say on that score is "Would that referee have played that amount of extra time had it been City who were besieging the United goalmouth?" The answer of course is no, but it almost doesn't matter. We got battered in the second half, but we came back and showed class. The defence - who've been sound before this game, showed their lack of playing time together, but that was only to be expected when the pressure really came on - only 5 games into the season.

The reason I feel proud is that although ol' bacon face tried to denigrate the importance of the derby (as usual), every neutral in the country was saying that we gave them a game - unlike the utter garbage we served up last season. Back to the Sven and Keegan derbies, full of blood and thunder. And what a contrast to the Liverpool Love-ins...

Ambient said...

We deserved to get at least a draw out of the game. Its far too easy and roll over and let yourselves be tickled on the tummy by the mob trying to justify what went on, on Sunday. City dominated the second half of the first half but what was most fscinating was how many of the so called "independent" media came out in support and deference to the mega debt.

I am sorry but this "they were the better" team capitulation isnot something you would ever hear from them. This mind set needs to change and its time that we fans showed more spine too.

Every time there is an opportunity to do City down most of the media take it. Its clear from the way Ferguson and Neville behaved how important that game was to them and how important that one goal was.

Stephen Shaw said...

Ambient,
Yes, yes, yes and yes. The "better" team never walks away with 3 points, it's the team that scored the most goals.
So simple, yet our mindset is still that of apologetic, accepting losers.

OxfordBlue said...

The failure to explain why only 16 seconds was added on for Michael Owen's goal celebration (in excess of 1 minute) is the bit that sticks with me but we must move on. You HAVE to play until the final whistle - we learnt that 10 years ago ourselves against Gillingham. We paid the price for failing to hold onto the ball during the added time despite multiple chances to do so.
I do agree though that we do have to change the 'best team won' mentality. You would never hear that from Bacon Face. The best teams win when they play poorly. We came back three times, equalised in the final minute at OT, scored the best goals, scored 3goals at OT, took our chances when they came (there were very few)....we just showed naivity in not knowing how to see out time....as well as defending poorly (Richards especially).