Newcastle United head coach Steve Bruce is still tipping Jamal Lewis for big things at the club despite the left-back only playing six minutes of football in the last six weeks. Lewis came off the bench the 4-3 defeat to Man City – his first outing since the 1-1 draw with Wolves on February 27th, and while Bruce hasn’t picked him for the first team, he’s confident Lewis will still turn out to be a good player.
Steve Bruce said: “Look he’s only young and I expected him to have a blip along the way – or whatever you want to call it. He’s done nothing wrong. I think he’s got a huge future for us. I see him train every day and watch him, and he’s a young player – I’ve just gone for a bit of experience at a time when I felt we’ve needed it most. So like a lot of players coming to Newcastle, Jamal is straight under the spotlight but he’ll be fine and he’s going to be a really, really good player. His first season has been difficult because of where we found ourselves in the league but he’s had another year in the Premier League, two successive years the kid has had in the Premier League so that’ll do him the world of good.”
Matt Ritchie has come into the side and made the left wing-back role his own with Lewis confined to the bench for the last eight games other than his 84th-minute cameo on Friday.
