Clark seals the deal as Magpies

NEWCASTLE UNITED 2

Yedlin (42), Clark (52)

BOURNEMOUTH 1

Wilson (14)

Newcastle head coach Steve Bruce has praised Ciaran Clark after seeing him come in from the cold and take on the role of match-winner.

The Republic of Ireland defender was not even making the matchday squad a few weeks ago, but scored in last Saturday’s 3-2 win at West Ham and then fired the Magpies to a home victory over Bournemouth seven days later.

Bruce said: “The one thing you want is competition and

Ciaran, who was probably questioning… There were times when I didn’t pick him in the squad, like today – I’m leaving out people like ( Javi) Manquillo, who’s done nothing wrong, ( Yoshinori) Muto, who’s done nothing wrong.

“It’s the difficult part of it. All you can say to them is, ‘Take your chance’, and Ciaran is the prime example of it. He’s done remarkably well coming from nowhere.

I’m delighted for him.

“He trains every day, works hard every day, great pro and when you see somebody getting the winner like he did from where he was probably six weeks ago not travelling with us, fair play to him.”

Clark’s intervention came seven minutes into the second half of a rousing encounter, during which the Cherries took a 14th-minute lead when Harry Wilson rounded off a smart training ground move from a corner.

Manager Eddie Howe said: “The routines we have, we’ve always prided ourselves on being innovative from those positions and it was really well-planned, but brilliantly executed by the players and a great finish from Harry.”