GARY O’Neil understood fans’ frustration following Cherries’ FA Cup 4-2 defeat to Burnley – sharing: “I feel the same.” Asked if he understood the frustration from fans,
Gary O’Neil responded: “Yeah. I feel the same. The three huge errors for the goals make it impossible to win the football match. That is the story of the game, really. You give away three ridiculous goals and you have no chance.”
Whilst Cherries stopped the rot of conceding from set-pieces, systematic errors became individual, with Marcos Senesi, Lewis Cook, and Ryan Christie losing the ball for three of the goals. Vincent Kompany’s Clarets have received praise for their passing prowess, but Burnley only had to turn on the style for their third, Zaroury showing nice footwork and a curling finish. The nature of the other three goals came out of nowhere according
Gay O’Neil said: “They’re basic errors. I haven’t seen loads of them in our time working with the team. So to see three in one afternoon was surprising.”
Despite the numerous errors, O’Neil believes his side would not repeat them in similar situations moving forward.
Gary O Neil said: “I probably wouldn’t group them. I think every error has its reasons and it’s difficult to explain them. I think if you put those boys in that situation again, there’s almost a zero per cent chance that they’d make the same error. It doesn’t help us, like I say, because the Crystal Palace and Burnley game are winnable games for us and we manage to beat ourselves in them both. So Crystal Palace and Burnley didn’t really do a lot to beat us.”
