Steve Bruce admitted he was almost lost for words after Newcastle United’s dramatic comeback at Goodison Park.
The Magpies looked dead and buried going into stoppage time before Florian Lejeune’s double strike stole a point .
After the game, former AC Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti compared the game to Liverpool’s miracle act in Istanbul in 2005 - a game he was in charge of for the Serie A giants.
Bruce almost looked like he was saying sorry to the Italian afterwards, he said: “I didn’t apologise.
“But he told me he was 3-0 up in the Champions Legue final wasn’t he? He just shrugged his shoulders.
“The one thing we didn’t do is give up.”
After taking a moment to reflect on the 2-2 draw, Bruce said: “It’s quite remarkable.
“I can’t fault the players for their endeavour.
“Joelinton was struggling after 50 minutes; I nearly put a centre-half up front.
“We keep showing determination.
“We were a tired team tonight but we found a bit of energy from somewhere”
After Lejuene’s first goal Bruce had frantically asked fourth official Mike Dean if a comeback was even possible.
He said: “When we scored Mike Dean said there are 40 seconds left – and you’re thinking ‘can we score in 40 seconds?’
“We rode our luck certainly but they never gave up.
“There is a good spirit and attitude in this team – we looked tired but we played people out of position. We didn’t have much coming off the bench in terms of forward players but the attitude was fantastic.
“It’s a wacky game that’s for sure - but it’s great. It just shows you shouldn’t leave a game early.”
On a day in which Bruce presented Nabil Bentaleb on a season long deal from Schalke 04 , he was relieved to be able to use him against Oxford at the weekend.
He said: “Just when we need him - he’s the type of quality we are looking for.
“He trained today and hopefully he’ll be involved on Saturday.”
