Alex Neil responds to comments from Wycombe Wanderers staff ahead of their play-off final with Sunderland | OneFootball

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Football League World

·19 May 2022

Alex Neil responds to comments from Wycombe Wanderers staff ahead of their play-off final with Sunderland

Article image:Alex Neil responds to comments from Wycombe Wanderers staff ahead of their play-off final with Sunderland

As we approach the play-off final this Saturday, both Sunderland and Wycombe Wanderers are keen to have the upper hand as they go into the tie.

Sunderland finished the season fifth in the league whilst Wycombe were sixth with only a point separating them.


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The Black Cats overcome Sheffield Wednesday to reach the final whilst Wycombe beat 3rd placed MK Dons.

There have been a few comments from the Chairboys as Chairman Rob Couhig described Sunderland as “the team that is a Netflix show”.

Furthermore, with Sunderland fans set to outnumber the Chairboys this weekend, Gareth Ainsworth called it an honour to be sharing a pitch with “the biggest club outside the Premier League.”

However, Alex Neil wants to ditch the mind games and when asked about the comments, he told The Northern Echo: “Their chairman’s comments? Listen, it’s a big game, so maybe sometimes people get a bit over-excited, don’t they? It’s fine. No problem.

“As for Gareth saying that we’re the biggest club outside the Premier League? There’s certainly no pressure from that. None of that bothers me in the slightest.

“Are we favourites? Well, people can think what they want. But the simple fact is that Wycombe were in the Championship last year.

“I’m not trying to play us down by any means. Normally, in the majority of cases, whenever I’ve listened to press conferences, people have said all the pressure is on you, the expectation is on you. That’s normal for us, and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

“But if you look at Wycombe, they were in the Championship last year, whereas we’ve been in League One for four years. So, I’m not convinced how much favourites we actually are.”

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Article image:Alex Neil responds to comments from Wycombe Wanderers staff ahead of their play-off final with Sunderland

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Looking ahead to the game, Neil admitted: “If I’m being honest, I think it’s a match that’s got the capability of going either way. If somebody gets an early goal, then I think both teams are more than capable of bursting the game wide open, and really making it an end-to-end affair. But equally, I think it could potentially be cagey.

“Depending on when the first goal comes, I think that will determine what the match is going to look like. Certainly, if we do conceded the first goal, then we won’t be hanging about waiting for stuff to happen. We’ll be going to try to win. And I’m sure they will be exactly the same.”

The Verdict:

With the lead up to the play-off final this weekend, there was always going to be comments said from both sides about the upcoming game and the pressure on the opposition.

Neil expresses that he doesn’t want to be involved in any mind gam then proceeds to point out that Wycombe were a Championship side more recently and therefore putting the pressure on them showing he knows exactly how to play it in these situations.

When it comes down to it, naturally in a game like this, there is pressure upon both sides as they only have this one opportunity to get promotion this summer.

However, both Neil and Ainsworth will be hoping their players can look beyond the comments from the other side that may involve pressure.

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