Steve Bruce said he was always “quietly confident” he could exceed the expectations of the pre-season doom mongers at Newcastle United – even if he knows it’s too early to be crowing.
Bruce’s Magpies have 25 points from 18 games, their best start for six years. That comes after they were installed as one of the pre-season favourites for relegation upon Bruce’s appointment.
The wins have come since a defeat at Leicester which led to some questioning whether he would see out the year as Newcastle boss.
Since then they’ve won six and remained undefeated at home, which is reason for mid-season satisfaction for the United Head Coach. Asked about pre-season reaction to his appointment which saw criticism from ‘some quarters’, he quipped: “Some quarters? From every corner!
“I was always quietly confident given what I’ve done, that I could handle the job. I’ve done it for a long, long time and that has stood me in good stead and it needed to and maybe 14 years ago it might have been too big for me. I might have been a little bit more favourable (to fans) back then but it might have been too much me for but that experience I’ve had has helped.
“I won’t get carried away because I’ve had a few results. It’s a difficult job and it still is but one I was determined to try my best at and enjoy. That’s certainly the case as I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
Although there has been plenty of focus on Bruce’s role in the good start to the season he says that the focus should really be on the players – who have shown quality that many didn’t give them credit for.
“All credit to the players because we’ve got some very good players and they’ve shown that, especially their spirit and their togetherness has certainly helped them,” he said.
“When the supporters see they are giving their all they will forgive them their mistakes and forgive one or two stray passes. We played too many of them in the last 15 minutes of the first half on Saturday – we couldn’t pass to a black and white shirt!
“They still had the resilience to keep on coming and got their reward in the end.”
