Steve Bruce says “We’ve had a really good week” as Newcastle knocked out of cup and Watford draw
After watching Newcastle struggle to a home draw against bottom club Watford, Steve Bruce was looking for the positives.
He claimed that this has been ‘a really good week’ for Newcastle United.
I suppose that all depends on what you count as success.
Last Sunday’s backs to the wall win at Tottenham was undoubtedly an excellent win BUT when you then get knocked out of the League Cup at the first hurdle playing a weakened team (seven changes), before the poor performance today, I don’t think ‘really good week’ is a really good description.
Considering we are now supposed to be targeting the cups, I think three points and progress in the League Cup this week would have counted as a good week, four points and a cup win equalling a very good return.
A poor quality match today which could have gone either way.
The biggest positive being that the one point means Newcastle won’t spend the next two weeks in the relegation zone.
Steve Bruce:
“It’s probably level par (the start to the season), especially when you think we’ve had Tottenham and Arsenal in there. You would accept it.
“We had a wonderful opportunity to get six (points from two games) today.
“We’ve had a really good week.
“We played well last week and in midweek and did enough to win the game today.
“We are disappointed we didn’t nick it in the end because we had a couple of really good chances in the second half.
“We had a 15-20-minute spell where we looked likely to score and unfortunately we didn’t take the big opportunities.
“Considering we were 1-0 down after a minute, I thought we responded in the right way.”
Stats from BBC Sport:
Newcastle 1 Watford 1 – Saturday 31 August 3pm
Goals:
Newcastle:
Schar 27
Watford:
Hughes 2
Possession was Watford 51% Newcastle 49%
Total shots were Watford 13 Newcastle 13
Shots on target were Watford 3 Newcastle 5
Corners were Watford 5 Newcastle 6
Referee: Graham Scott
Newcastle team v Watford:
Dubravka, Krafth (Manquillo 78), Schar (Fernandez 85), Lascelles, Dummett, Willem, Hayden, Longstaff, Atsu (Muto 82), Almiron, Joelinton
Unused Subs
Darlow, Clark, Ki, Shelvey
Crowd: 44,157 (approx 1,500 Watford)
(Statement from Toon For Change protest group on crowd figures – Read HERE)
(Watch official match highlights HERE)
(Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Newcastle 1 Watford 1 – Read HERE)
(Newcastle 1 Watford – Lowest NUFC PL crowd in 7 years see Bruce’s team struggle against bottom club – Read HERE)
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