Bruce wants wins for Christmas as busy period looms
AIM TO GET TOON GETTING HIGHER UP TABLE BEFORE FESTIVE GAMES
STEVE Bruce wants Newcastle United to enter the hectic festive period next month with players looking to move further up the Premier League table rather than over their shoulders.
A win against AFC Bournemouth would take the Magpies to 15 points and Bruce would maintain his record of being six points ahead of Rafa Benitez’s team at the same stage last season.
But Bruce said managers look at certain milestones in a different way.
Bruce said: “I think some of us look at October and November and we’ve got past that hurdle of getting the sack! I shouldn’t say that!
“But a lot of managers think we need to get past the breaks and get to the next one. For me, it has always been about the accumulation of points, especially in the Premier
League. Can you get to a certain total for a certain month?
“If you can, for the Christmas period it can be crucial.”
Newcastle’s win against West Ham
United put some daylight between Bruce’s side and the bottom three – just weeks after the bookies had installed them as favourites to finish bottom.
But Bruce expects things to improve even more. “You need time,” he said. “We still haven’t seen everybody play yet.
“Saint-Maximin has only played four games, I still haven’t seen Lejeune and haven’t seen much of Matt Ritchie.
“So I am still getting to know everyone and it’s only 11 games. It’s always that time thing we need. “That’s why we pray for it. Sometimes you don’t get that these days.” Bruce refused to get carried away with Newcastle’s recent improvement in results and insisted there was work to be done. He added: “We have had too many draws at home. “Playing at home is a different
Can you get to a certain total for a certain month? If you can, for the Christmas period it can be crucial
dynamic and we are expected to attack teams.
“Let’s hope we can do all of those things.
“If we can get ourselves on to a decent platform going into December that would be great.”
United played Bournemouth at the same stage last term and emerged with a 2-1 win.
A repeat would leave Bruce delighted.
He said: “If we go in with 15