‘We’ve still got six games. My aim is to beat last year’s tally’

STEVE Bruce has played down suggestions that Newcastle United are safe from the drop in the Premier League.

However, he believes his players have now handed themselves a chance of matching or beating last season’s points tally of 44 points in the final six matches.

United finished 13th with that amount of points last term and were effectively safe with nine games to go.

This time around they have 35 points with 18 more to play for but their run-in includes some tough games against Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Leicester.

Bruce said: “I’m not going to take anything for granted.

“I’ve always said it’s the accumulation of points, and 35, in my opinion, is not enough, so you won’t get me jumping and hollering at the moment.

“We’ve still got six games to play – can we finish above where we did last year? Can we beat last year’s points tally? Can we beat where we were? We’ll try our utmost.”

Newcastle’s win moved them up to 15th place in the table but more importantly puts a nine-point gap between themselves and Fulham, who face Arsenal this afternoon.

Bruce said: “I don’t think we’ve got enough points yet, that’s for sure, and my aim is to beat last year’s points tally.

“But to get back-to-back wins and play the way we did, especially first half – second half, we’ll forget about that, but first half in particular, I thought we were excellent in our work.”

Meanwhile, Bruce has revealed a fresh injury concern for Allan Saintmaximin.

The French winger was the star of the show but he limped off after 64 minutes, and now faces assessment from the United medical team with a new knock.

Having missed games with thigh and calf issues, plus a bout of Covid, Saint-maximin returned to the team against Burnley when he scored a dramatic winner.

Now Bruce could have been dealt a fresh blow as far as the winger is concerned, he said: “Saint-maximin, unfortunately, has got a badly swollen ankle, which he did after ten minutes.

“It was touch and go at half-time whether he came out. We hope he’s going to be okay.

“We’ve seen what he’s like when he’s on the pitch and he’s right. We’ll see later on in the week.”

Bruce opted for a cautious approach with top scorer Callum Wilson by only naming him as sub.

Wilson appeared after 64 minutes but picked up an additional period on the pitch due to the surprising amount of stoppages.