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Steve Bruce reacts to West Brom 2 Newcastle 3 – “It must be something in our DNA”

4 years ago
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Steve Bruce was a happy and relieved man, as Newcastle United progressed to the FA Cup sixth round.

Slaven Bilic had shown for sure where his priorities lay, when making nine changes to their first choice Championship team.

In the first 47 minutes Newcastle at times made West Brom look like a second tier reserve side, with the home team struggling to contain Almiron and Saint-Maximin.

ASM lashing a 30 yarder against the post before sweetly playing in Almiron for the opener.

A clever Joelinton backheel opened up the opportunity for the Paraguayan to make it two for himself and the team.

Then poor goalkeeping in the second minute after the break saw Bond push the ball onto Lazaro’s midriff for what proved to be the winner.

However, as Newcastle gradually dropped more defensively to see the game out, it encouraged the home side, who were unlucky on numerous occasions before striking on 74 minutes and then in injury time.

Steve Bruce reacting to he and his team doing their best to throw the game away: ‘It wouldn’t be Newcastle if we didn’t make a drama out of it! It must be something in our DNA.’

Newcastle still probably deserved to win overall but the way the other games are panning out (Arsenal, Chelsea and Sheffield United also now through, with Leicester, Tottenham, Man City and Man Utd likely to follow), we will very likely need to see a better 90 minutes than we did today against a second tier second choice line-up.

Steve Bruce:

“It wouldn’t be Newcastle without drama.

“In the end unfortunately we made hard work of it but for a large period of time I was delighted with the way we played.”

“The front four have been criticised but it was nice to see them play with a bit of freedom.

“Maybe the change in system suits them. Certainly in the last couple of games we’ve looked more of a threat which is important.

“Almirón looked a top, top player tonight.

“I thought Tino [Lazaro] gave us nice balance on the right hand side. His movement and touch was good.

“For an hour I was delighted with us against a very decent side.

“It’s a shame we finished the way we did but we’re in the last 8.

Steve Bruce talking to BBC Newcastle:

“It’s only the quarter final – it’s nothing, yet – but it would be fantastic to take that support to Wembley – they haven’t been there in years (in the cup).

“Let’s see what we can do.

“I knew what it would mean to have a little bit of a cup run.

“The draw’s been kind to us – let’s hope it’s kind again!

“We’re in the quarter final.

“There were large parts of it that I was delighted with – and, hopefully, we can take that into Saturday.

“It wouldn’t be Newcastle if we didn’t make a drama out of it! It must be something in our DNA.

“For an hour, I was very pleased. But, then that horrible mentality of when you think it’s too easy.

“We switched off and to be fair to West Brom, they never gave up.”

Stats from BBC Sport:

West Brom 2 Newcastle 3  – Tuesday 3 March 2020 8pm

Goals:

West Brom:

Phillips 74, Zohore 90+3

Newcastle: 

Almiron 33, 45+1, Lazaro 47

Possession was WBA 48% Newcastle 52%

Total shots were WBA 18 Newcastle 15

Shots on target were WBA 7 Newcastle 7

Corners were WBA 6 Newcastle 2

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Newcastle United:

Darlow, Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Rose, Sean Longstaff, Bentaleb, Lazaro (Lejeune 90+1), Almiron (Shelvey 71), Joelinton, Saint-Maximim (Gayle 80)

Unused Subs:

Elliot, Yedlin, Ritchie, Matty Longstaff

Crowd: (NUFC 5,050)

(West Brom 2 Newcastle 3 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Tuesday’s FA Cup 5th round win – Read HERE)

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