Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce on Friday was adamant that his side would claw their way out of the Premier League relegation zone after a 1-1 home draw against Leeds United left them still looking for their first win of the season.
The result left Newcastle 18th on two points from five games and Bruce endured a chorus of disgruntled home fans calling for the club to sack him after they fell behind to a 13th-minute goal from Raphinha.
Bruce praised the home crowd for willing their team on to salvage a point against dominant Leeds and said coming under pressure after a poor start was part and parcel of the game.
Photo: Reuters
“I can understand frustrations, I get that,” Bruce told Sky Sports. “The atmosphere they created makes the spectacle. They are unique and the way they got behind the team was the most important thing and I’m very pleased about that.”
“You have to accept that when you don’t win a game you come under pressure,” he said. “How you handle it, keep your dignity, do what you think is best and stick with it.”
Newcastle were fortunate not to fall further behind in a action-packed first half before Allan Saint-Maximin equalized in the 44th minute with a fine solo effort.
Photo: Reuters
Bruce was delighted with his team’s response and said that he actually enjoyed the enthralling encounter, which reminded him of schoolboy games with rivals throwing caution to the wind.
“If I’m being honest, I enjoyed the game, and let’s be honest, it could have gone either way,” he said. “It was like when you play at school, it was end-to-end and to be fair to Leeds they force you into that way.”
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
RSS