Former Sunderland boss pays tribute to 'incredible' Newcastle United fans

St James’s Park was back at full capacity for the first time since February 2020 as United hosted the Hammers in their Premier League opener on Sunday.

Steve Bruce’s side lost the game 4-2 but that didn’t stop the 50,673 fans inside creating a cauldron of noise.

Joe Willock was subject of rapturous applause when he was unveiled to the crowd pre-match after his £20million move from Arsenal on Friday.

The stadium then erupted when Callum Wilson and Jacob Murphy scored in the first-half before Bruce’s men collapse after the break.

Goals from Said Benrahma, Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio turned the game on its end – but Newcastle fans stuck by their team until the very end.

And despite his previous connection with bitter rivals Sunderland, Moyes showed his class by heaping praise on the Geordie faithful.

He said: “It was more sort of 50,000 Geordies at the start and I was looking and thinking to myself, 'Wow, this is real. We stood in the dugout and said, 'this is what we have been missing’.

"This is a fantastically supported football club and an incredible fanbase and they did not let their team down today.

"The Newcastle supporters were terrific."

On the Magpies’ performance, Moyes added: “I thought Newcastle played well.

"When you come up here with 50,000 Geordies and come back from a goal down after three minutes, it shows you a slightly different West Ham at the moment.”

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