Brian GLANVILLE

Bruce’s bonus after going back to basics

Ah, the glorious uncertainty of football; part of its immense and endless charm, so often the source of frustration.

This season was still very young when we saw abundant evidence of all this. Not least at Tottenham Hotspur, where Spurs against all expectation found themselves beaten by a Newcastle United side which had lost its first two matches and had deserved to.

The Sunday which would see Newcastle rise from seeming disaster, tightening in defence with five at the back, a newspaper had criticised their manager Steve Bruce for an allegedly too open and attacking policy. “Go back to basics defensively,”