Football

‘Sometimes you deserve a bit of stick’ Bruce on expected reaction to Newcastle United defeat

Newcastle United were well beaten by newly-promoted Norwich at Carrow Road, with Teemu Pukki bagging a hat-trick against a woeful Newcastle side, with Shelvey pulling one back at the end of the game. It is a long journey home for the 2,000 fans who made the trip to Norfolk.

It could be a very hard season for the Geordies. Defensively the club has struggled during the first two games.

At the post match press conference Bruce said: I’ve got to be ready for the flack which will come my way. And, to be perfectly honest, sometimes you deserve a bit of stick. I’ve got no problem with that because, today, we weren’t good enough.

“I can’t question the desire. Nobody was not trying. Maybe we got caught up in Norwich’s first home game. We just didn’t do enough.

” Difficult and hugely disappointing – the manner of it. With and without the ball. We certainly didn’t do enough and we have to improve.

“The answers lie within. We will look at things on Monday. We know we can do better.

“Sometimes you get beat and you accept it. But the manner of it – we haven’t done enough. That’s always disappointing.

“It was one of those disappointing afternoons where we didn’t do enough with or without the ball. The big turning point in the game was when we missed the two chances before the goal. You might not be at your best but at this level, the standard and the big chances we had – we’ve got to take one of those. If we had taken one it might have given us the belief that was lacking but we didn’t take them.”

Daniel Farke hailed hat-trick hero Teemu Pukki’s “brilliant performance” in Norwich’s 3-1 win pver Newcastle.

The Canaries started brightly and were rewarded when Pukki fired his side into the lead with a powerful volley past Martin Dubravka.

Pukki, the Championship’s top-scorer last season with 29 goals, added a second in the 63rd minute when he turned and struck into the bottom corner before completing his treble 12 minutes later, slotting home after twisting past the Newcastle defence.

Joe Mellor

Head of Content

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