Bristol City midfielder Gary O’Neil has taken a dig at Newcastle United’s negative tactics in the clash between the two sides on Saturday.
Newcastle United continued their renaissance with a 1-0 victory over Bristol City at the Ashton Gate Stadium on Saturday and the Magpies were certainly made to work very hard by the Robins during the encounter.
It was Dwight Gayle who got the winning goal for Newcastle on the 19th minute of the game but following the strike, the Magpies were put under intense pressure for majority of the clash by the spirited Bristol City side.
While Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez would have been pleased by the fact that his side managed to put up such a fine show of resistance, Bristol City midfielder Gary O’Neil was not left too impressed.
O’Neil stated that he was surprised with Newcastle’s negative tactics following Gayle’s goal considering the quality in the Magpies’ side and added that a draw would have been a fairer result.
The 33-year-old was quoted saying, “It was a very good goal we got doubly punished because it allowed them to sit in and defend very deep and they didn’t offer very much at all in the second half.
“Although they were 1-0 up I expected them to come out a bit with the quality of players they’ve got. That surprised me because they accepted us being the dominant force.
“They were sat so deep that we were never going to carve out clear openings or one-on-ones. Their back four was always going to be intact and we were trying to score with balls lofted into the box or shots from further out.
“There were a couple of little scuffles that could gave gone in and if they had it might have been very different getting back to 1-1 with momentum on our side but to be fair they managed to hang on.”
