If Steve Bruce was nervous as he stepped out of the tunnel and glanced, instinctively, towards the Gallowgate End, Newcastle’s new head coach need not have been. Rafa Benítez’s successor received an overwhelmingly polite – if slightly reserved – reception as he pulled on a new black and white tracksuit and presided over his first home match.
An early watershed was reached when 20 minutes into the second half the 16,686 crowd assembled for an encouraging 2-1 friendly win over Saint-Étienne replaced circumspection with optimism and indulged in a maiden chorus Bruce probably had not dared dream about. “Steve Bruce’s black and white army,” piped up the choir.
Granted it was all a little tentative and did not endure but Mike Ashley’s public relations team will doubtless have been congratulating themselves on an almost blanket absence of anti-Ashley chants. Bar an isolated “get out of our club” there was almost zero dissent.
If it was still far from a case of the king is dead, long live the king, there were, significantly, no haunting laments in honour of the much adored Benítez.
Instead, Bruce was afforded the benefit of the doubt and helped appreciably by the exciting presence of £80m worth of new attacking talent in the shape of the recently acquired £40m Brazilian striker Joelinton and the newly arrived winger Allan Saint-Maximin to go with the already resident Miguel Almirón.
“We missed far too many chances but overall I’m very pleased,” said Bruce. “Joelinton will drive me crazy at times but he’s got electrifying pace and gets people on the edge of their seats.
“I accept I’m not Rafa, not everyone’s cup of tea and it’ll be different, certainly not as quiet, against Arsenal next Sunday. But I’m delighted to be here and I’ll do my best.”
While Joelinton, signed from Hoffenheim, wore the No 9 shirt with some distinction and scored the first-half opener, Saint-Maximin, bought from Nice on Friday, prompted loud applause as he showcased a repertoire of pace suffused flicks and tricks. Meanwhile Almirón’s powers of acceleration soon had Bruce screaming “Go Miggy, go.”
At first it seemed that a visiting team who finished fourth in Ligue One last season might dominate but Saint-Étienne created little of note against Newcastle’s 3-5-2 formation.
Encouraged by their new manager’s exhortations of “press high, press high” the home side’s amalgam of pace and Jonjo Shelvey’s long passing served them well. Long before half-time it was abundantly apparent why Manchester United are so keen to prise Sean Longstaff – whose younger brother Matty scored a fabulous goal with his first touch as a substitute – away from this midfield.
Not even Mathieu Debuchy’s late consolation goal against the run of play could detract from the feelgood factor.
Earlier Joelinton had helped the crowd find its voice as he seamlessly controlled a conveniently dropping long ball and, having held off a defender, rounded Stéphane Ruffier before sliding the ball into the unguarded net.
Even better followed. No sooner had Matty Longstaff trotted on than Saint-Maximin – courtesy of an audacious backheel – combined with his fellow substitute Jetro Willems – a Netherlands international acquired on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt – to cue him. A steadying touch later the academy product’s shot arrowed into the roof of the net.
Cue quiet euphoria. Yet as Bruce stressed, infinitely tougher tests lie ahead and Newcastle fans are far from a homogenous group. Not all the diverse sub-groups housed in a broad church are anything like as polite as Saturday’s congregation.
