Steve Bruce says Newcastle United put in an improved display from the 5-2 defeat at Leeds – despite failing to beat relegation haunted Fulham. The Magpies were held to a 1-1 draw at St James’ Park on a day when they opted to park the bus at home.
Steve Bruce said: “We didn’t give anything stupid away. Our defending the other night was naive so you expect us to learn from that but we struggled on the ball. We didn’t really create enough. A difficult week but we take a point and move on. We can perform better than we saw tonight and that is always a concern. We can still improve on what we are doing. We didn’t see enough tonight or the other night and that is disappointing. It’s that inconsistency which is obviously a concern. We got the penalty and when you look at it and analyse it I think the referee has made the right call. When I see the video back it looks like he clicked his heel. In that respect I think the decision is right but we have to look at our performance and we haven’t done enough. We have to be better and certainly in the first half.”