When Newcastle lost 3-0 to Brighton, it felt like the end of the road for Steve Bruce.
The defeat made it just two wins in 20 games. The club were lingering tentatively above the relegation zone, just waiting to be sucked in by a resurgent Fulham.
It looked like Bruce was done. There was no fight. There was nothing. It was an awful performance that summed up the season for the Magpies.
For too long they had been passive, inviting teams to put them under pressure. They even did it against Sheffield United, who hadn’t won a single game before we arrived at Bramall Lane on January 12th.
The results were suddenly matching the performances, and pressure on the manager was at an all-time high.
Yet Bruce kept his job. Newcastle quickly put any talk of a departure to bed, insisting that the manager retained the support of Mike Ashley.
We’ve played five times since the Brighton defeat and picked up eight points. Combine that with Fulham faltering and it looks like we’ll have enough to survive.
What does Ashley see in Bruce?
Despite closing in on survival, it has been an appalling season.
The football has been wretched, as Newcastle United returned to being more of a soap opera.
However, Ashley reportedly has sympathy for the Toon boss.
According to the Times, Ashley sympathises with Bruce because of the impact COVID had on the squad before Christmas.
The club were hit with an outbreak following the Crystal Palace win in November, which forced the following week’s game against Aston Villa to be postponed.
Multiple players felt the effects of the virus. The likes of Federico Fernandez, Jamaal Lascelles and Allan Saint-Maximin really suffered, taking much longer to recover.
Newcastle returned to action on December 12th against West Brom, with the likes of Isaac Hayden having to battle through fatigue to secure a valuable win.
Even this week, Bruce has spoke about the impact COVID had.
“Hey listen, a lot of people are running on empty because it’s been non-stop, basically, for two years, especially the players,” Bruce told Sky Sports.
“The players desperately need a break.
“I’ve never experienced anything quite like when COVID hit, and when it hit us after Crystal Palace, how ruthless and brutal it was.
“It ripped through everybody at the training ground – and it wasn’t just then, ‘OK, you’ve got COVID and you’re going to recover’. People didn’t recover. Everywhere I looked, people were shattered, tired, sick.”
The outbreak was seriously damaging to Newcastle, just as they were entering the busiest period of the season.
But is that a good enough reason for Ashley to stand by the manager?
Even before the outbreak, the performances were poor. And once everyone was back to full fitness, things still weren’t acceptable.
Luckily, it looks as though Bruce has been able to steer us towards survival. But that still shouldn’t be classed as success.
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