Marcos Senesi’s first goal for the club was ruled out by Miguel Almiron’s strike on the stroke of half-time, and in the second half, returnee Dominic Solanke must have thought he had sealed the points late on when Kieran Trippier cleared his backheel off the line. O’Neil shared how he thought the performance was a further improvement despite not earning his side all three points.
Gary O Neil said: “There were some improvements. I thought we built on a decent performance against Brighton last week with another one. I thought the longer the game went on, we looked more likely to win it. Slightly disappointed that we didn’t take all three. The boys’ performance and the chances we created deserved three, but against a very good side that have not lost a game in a long time, it was probably as close as they’ve come to losing one.”
Cherries’ head coach went on to expound on his belief that his side deserved all three points, pointing to chances spurned by Solanke and Marcus Tavernier in the second period.
Gary O Neil said: “Obviously the Solanke chance, the Tavernier chance, two big chances. I thought we were very threatening. It will be interesting to see the sort of numbers and stuff on it, but I would suggest we were unlucky not to go on and win it.”
O’Neil also commented how he had been “desperate” to get into the break unscathed, with Almiron’s equaliser Newcastle’s only clear-cut chance of the first half.
Gary O Neil said: “I was worried about the last ten minutes because they were forced into a change of shape when Gordon came on. It took our lads a bit of a while to (adapt) to the tactical change. I was desperate to get to half time so we could fix a couple of things. We didn’t quite get there. Disappointing with the goal, obviously some errors in it, as there always are. I think if you look at the performance, at the atmosphere, the connection between the lads and the fans today. It was a good afternoon, but disappointed for the lads that they didn’t get all three.”
