Steve Bruce ‘encouraged’ despite back to back defeats for Newcastle United

It’s two games, two defeats for the Magpies following the 4-2 opening day defeat at home to West Ham United and Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Aston Villa.

At Villa Park, Newcastle took until the 90th minute to register a shot on target. Villa had just two shots on target themselves, but scored them both.

As a result, United dropped to 19th in the Premier League table, above only Norwich City on goal difference.

Now, Bruce’s side face fellow strugglers Burnley in the Carabao Cup second round at St. James’s Park on Wednesday evening (7:45pm kick-off) before hosting a Southampton side on Saturday (3pm kick-off) also in search of their first win of the campaign.

Ahead of a potentially crucial week at this early stage of the season, the Newcastle boss is looking to focus on the positives from the weekend defeat rather than dwell on the negatives.

"Every week is important in the Premier League,” he said. “I've been encouraged by what I've seen [at Aston Villa], I really have.

"We gave as good as we got against Aston Villa and I can't remember Freddie [Woodman] making a save and we've lost for me on big key decisions and to a long throw-in which is disappointing but lots of encouraging things to work on.”

Newcastle haven’t lost the opening three matches of a Premier League season since 1999, a record they’ll be desperate to avoid breaking next Saturday.

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