fbpx
Connect with us

Championship

Sean Dyche fumes at his players after Wrexham knock Nottingham Forest out of the FA Cup

Sean Dyche fumes at his players after Wrexham of the Championship knock Premier League strugglers Nottingham Forest out of the FA Cup.

A thrilling third round tie saw late first-half goals from Liberato Cacace and Ollie Rathbone put Wrexham 2-0 up.

Igor Jesus managed to get one back for Forest, before Dom Hyam then, made it 3-1. Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice, including an 89th-minute leveller, to send the tie to extra time.

Penalties were needed to settle this one, with Wrexham goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo saving two spot-kicks to give Wrexham their first win over top-flight opposition since 1999.

Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche, speaking to TNT Sports: “The first half was completely unacceptable. I let the players know, and certainly some individuals will know, and they’ve got to look in the mirror at that side of things. But, the strangeness of football, I thought the players that came on in the second half were a credit, and we went on and looked like a Premier League side.

“Callum’s [Hudson-Odoi] goals, brilliant from him, and we get back in it, and then as you know penalties are a lottery. We’ve created enough chances to win the game but we didn’t in the end. You can’t do that in the first half, completely unacceptable, to me, but also I told them to look in the mirror because that is unacceptable to the badge as well.”

“It’s one of those isn’t it? They all knock on your door and say: ‘Why aren’t I playing?’ – well, the evidence is quite honestly there. For some, not for all. That’s what football is. You’ve got to train right all the time and you’ve got to prepare right because when your day comes you’ve got to be ready. Too many were not ready in the first half.

“As I said I must credit the lads in the second half, they acted as a catalyst and livened a few up, and in the second half onwards we looked how we should, a Premier League side.

“But you can’t give [away] a two goal head start in football. Credit to them [Wrexham] by the way. I’m not taking anything away from them, fair play. They win it in the end and they go through, but an absolutely unacceptable first half from our point of view.”

On what changed in the second half: “I could have taken all of them off [at half time], including myself probably. The tempo. The mentality to take the game on, which was lacking so badly in the first half. Slow, methodical, we’ve done a lot of work on changing the feel of a game. No intent basically, no desire to make a difference. And then all of a sudden the tempo rose, the way we were asking questions, scored some good goals. The mentality to keep going from the second half group was excellent.

“The club had such a big season last year and sometimes they think it’s just roll on. It’s not. You have to fight again, work again, and deliver again. It was clear that wasn’t happening in pre-season and during the early part of the season. We’ve come in an addressed it and made a change at times, but sometimes you make changes and revert back to that.

“The fact of the matter is we had to make changes because of the schedule but the footballers show their hand. They won’t be knocking on my door to ask ‘why aren’t I playing that first half group, that’s for sure.”

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson speaking to TNT pitchside: “It was a rollercoaster game. The late goal knocked the stuffing out of us a bit. I said at half-time of extra time we’ve come a long way, let’s not give up now. I’m pleased for these players to write their bit of history.”

On what he said to players before extra time: “We had to rally the troops a bit. The whole ground had gone flat.”

On the shootout: “I didn’t watch it. I was staring at the crowd and waiting for their reaction. Special mention to Jay Rodriguez. He’s been out all season, came back pre-season and had an injury. The reception he got says everything about him. He is the ultimate professional even though he has been out of the team. Arthur has produced the save and will be the hero and rightly so.”

“We’ve had so many exciting games here over the years. The supporters who were here during the National League days will recall 6-4s and 7-5s, some extraordinary games. “It was an entertaining game I would imagine for the viewers.

“Of course we would have loved to have won it in normal time but you have to respect them [Forest]. They have some really good players and they’ve got a good squad. We’ve got to be very proud of our lads. To go to extra time after the heavy Christmas schedule is a huge credit to both teams.

“You’ve got tired legs, you’re 3-1 up and you start thinking, ‘We’re nearly there’, and then you get pegged back. We had to show incredible resilience tonight, which we did, and the lads are on a high in the dressing room, and I want them to be. These are special nights in the FA Cup, we spoke about it in the build up to the game and now we’re through we want to really enjoy it.”

On whether the team practiced penalties: “Yes, we practiced them yesterday. It is always key to just go through them and get everybody that bit of confidence, and the lads struck them well, but Arthur [Onkonkwo] is the hero tonight.”

“It was another crazy game. I was pleased how we played against a really good side, and they made changes at half time as well. They were always going to have periods in the game but I thought throughout the game we looked dangerous, got the goals and it looked like we were comfortable.

“The late goal kind of deflated us, and the crowd as well, because you got the feeling after that ‘that was our big chance’. And the first ten minutes of extra time we were almost trying to gain an acceptance of that. Then we got better at the back end of the first period and in the second period we did well, and the penalties were great.

“It’s a big night for the club, it really is. I’m just pleased for this group of players to write their bit of history in the FA Cup.”

Wrexham goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, speaking to TNT Sports: “Thankfully we have good analysis people to help us out. I had a look at it before the game so really happy to make the two saves and help us win the game.

“The manager spoke to us before the game, told us about the history of the club and how we’re able to beat teams who are way above us.

“It was amazing to win the game in the end. We just have to enjoy the moment.”

On what was written on his water bottler: “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

On the fans: “It’s a special town. They’ve been amazing. Today they just kept going, stayed behind us.

“It’s been like this since I’ve been here – three seasons – and that’s why we’ve been able to make special things happen here.”

Wrexham forward Jay Rodriguez, speaking to TNT Sports: “It might have looked cool but you have the nerves in the build-up. I didn’t do anything there, it was all of these lads.

“They put a real shift in and to score the goals they did, defend how they did against a real top team is credit to these guys.

“I’ve been lucky enough to spend a year here now and the lads are down to earth, grafting, working hard and the manager is top.

“We’re sticking together and you can see from the performances that we are improving and have the belief we can beat anyway. We just have to stay humble and keep going.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Sean Dyche fumes at his players after Wrexham knock Nottingham Forest out of the FA Cup…

@Jonathan__Hill: So many must shoulder the blame along the way. The owner for appointing Edu and undoing good work. Edu for terrible recruitment. Nuno for being so stubborn. Ange for being Ange. The players (see below). But Dyche also. His tactics are archaic, can’t just rely on individuals #nffc

@Overthegiantree: Sean Dyche take accountability challenge (impossible)

@ryanbardill_: You’re also the problem. You’re negative, you have no tactics. Sideways sideways cross. Playing Mcatee as a 8 and Luiz as a 6 is ludicrous. There’s a reason you’ve never been given a good squad.

@RobinsReds_: You’re their fucking head coach. Why don’t you try coaching them into form and taking some accountability instead of blaming them? You don’t play half of them and when you do today, you play the lightest player known to man in central midfield against a solid home team.

@raggabinto: He picked an unbalanced team with certain players playing out of position. Ran Jesus into the ground. Has questions to answer. #nffc

@sam_nffc1865: Maybe its your abhorrent tactics Sean… More than happy to through half the squad on the bus rather than take some responsibility for once.

@barkerc31: Maybe look on the mirror at your tactics, your suppose to be the man to create unity amongst the group, never been given a top job before or decent squad because your not good enough and it’s showing now. Should never of appointed you with so much of the season left

@tom_banx: Well called out. I’ve been saying for ages that we’re too kind to them, they commit football crimes and get away with it for vast sums of money

@JoeJonesEverton: A dinosaur of a manager! It’s only going to get worse there. This man is a football terrorist. Should never ever manage in the Premier League again. People just don’t get the memo when it comes to Dyche. The worst anti football manager I’ve ever come across.

@gemlford: Throw the players under the bus that weren’t playing in their positions. You played awful players. Why can’t you take some accountability for that! Then change to 4-4-2 in the 87 min. It’s a joke #nffc

@DominicWiffin: All the weak hearted in the comments 😂 He’s clearly fuming. Fact is he keeps giving lads opportunities to win starting spots & they keep turning out 2/10 performances. One of the reasons the likes of Ando, MGW, Jesus, Murillo etc are all shattered. You have to be ready to start

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Championship