Former Premier League midfielder Robbie Savage has called out Newcastle fans for not giving Steve Bruce enough credit.
The Magpies moved out of the Premier League's relegation zone after a 1-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday, easing the pressured that was building on the Newcastle boss.
Bruce made five changes to the side that were thrashed 5-0 by Leicester last weekend and reverted to the tried and tested 5-2-2-1 formation that has served Newcastle so well over the last year.
DeAndre Yedlin, Ciaran Clark, Jetro Willems and Allan Saint-Maximin all returned to the side and made a meaningful difference to Bruce's side.
But it was the decision to hand young midfielder Matty Longstaff his Premier League debut that proved to be the most inspired, as the 19-year-old scored the winning goal en route to a man-of-the-match performance.
And Savage - who played under Bruce at Birmingham City - believes it is time his former manager received some credit from Newcastle supporters.
"If that would have been a Rafa Benitez team's performance today - disciplined, organised like it was," Savage told a Newcastle fans on his show on BBC Radio 5Live.
"If Rafa had have done that performance today against Manchester United, all the Newcastle fans would be on here saying 'oh, it was a Rafa masterclass, it was magnificent, it was brilliant'.
"Because it is Steve Bruce and not a lot of you like him then 'it's a poor Man United side'."
