Steve Bruce says Newcastle United players responded to the recent criticism

Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce has said that the Magpies players responded to the recent criticism as they clinched a shock 1-0 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur on the road. The Magpies barely provided a goalscoring threat in the opening two league games of the season and they were criticised for the performance at Norwich City, where they could have easily conceded more than three goals.

As such, the Magpies were given barely any chance of coming up with a positive result at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium but they managed to surprise the fans and pundits alike by coming out with a 1-0 win in the end. The Magpies only commanded 20 percent of the overall possession but they managed to find the net through summer signing Joelinton before restricting any clear-cut scoring chances for Spurs.

Speaking after the game, Bruce said: “I am delighted for my staff and the players. We have responded in the right way from last week’s game. We can talk tactics but they have to go out and perform. All-in-all I thought we thoroughly deserved the three points. We have had a tough week so we have had to respond in the right way and thankfully the players have.”

There has been a lot of negativity at the Tyneside outfit since the beginning of the summer with manager Rafael Benitez deciding to walk away from the club while the club lost the services of Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez. A run of successive defeats at the start of the season seemed to draw further criticism over the choice of manager to succeed Rafa, but Bruce has now certainly answered most of the doubters.

Still, they can’t be overexcited with the performance, considering there are another 35 games for the league season left. The Magpies have successfully beaten the drop in the past two seasons and they will be hoping to replicate the feat this time around.