Steve Bruce has insisted that his team are still playing for him - and that the 0-0 draw with Liverpool proved exactly that.
The Magpies held the champions on a night in which they were forced to concede possession but the players put their bodies on the line and held on for a valuable point.
Bruce, who celebrates his 60th birthday today, was delighted by his team's performance did indeed show the players were prepared to put up a fight for him, and said afterwards: "Yes, and I hope that's reflected for the team, not necessarily myself, because we were all disappointed with what happened in a big cup-tie against Brentford.
"We blew an unbelievably good opportunity, which has disappointed everybody, me included, so the one thing you have to do is respond and there were signs against Manchester City.
"We've played arguably two of the best teams in Europe back-to-back in a matter of two or three days, so the way they've responded, I couldn't have been any more pleased."
Although, it doesn't get much easier for Newcastle with a clash against Leicester City on Sunday to come.
Now Bruce is hoping that the draw with the Reds can bring some confidence back to the dressing room.
Bruce said: "I hope so. It breeds a bit of confidence when you take something from one of the big teams - and they are a wonderfully-gifted football team, so we should take a little bit of confidence from it.
"We've got another big game and the energy levels, we hope, are there for everybody and we recover because we've got another big game at the weekend in Leicester, who are a very good team themselves."
Bruce thanked Karl Darlow for his excellent display against Liverpool and said: "Of course we need out goalkeeper to play well and we have to have a little bit of luck along the way, but the effort and the endeavour and the commitment they showed just shows you that it can get you a result.
"I couldn't be more pleased.
"There were signs against Manchester City, which I was pleased about, and to go back-to-back against Manchester City and Liverpool in the manner we've done, I couldn't be any more pleased with what we've done tonight.
"That's one thing we've tried to do, be further up the pitch so we can engage a little bit higher.
"It's obviously something which is new to everybody, so I do think it's still a work in progress, of course, but I was pleased the way we went about it.
"Of course we have the use the ball better when we've got it – we turned it over in the first half, the last 10 minutes or so and caused ourselves a few problems, we have to look after the ball better."
