'It's not true!': Steve Bruce goes on attack after Newcastle United win

Bruce’s side are, potentially, a win away from safety after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Southampton. The club now has 35 points with nine Premier League games left to play.

Newcastle take on Sheffield United at St James’s Park on Saturday, and that fixture will be followed by a home FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester City.

“We're in the quarter-final of the cup, and how great it was for Newcastle fans, myself included, to be biting our nails to see who we are going to pull out of the hat in the last eight,” said head coach Bruce, who found himself under pressure after a run of one win from 10 league games.

“We haven't seen it enough at Newcastle, so why not? Let's enjoy Sheffield United, and then we'll bring on the cup tie after that. Who knows?”

Allan Saint-Maximin was Newcastle’s match-winner against Southampton. The previous weekend had seen a claim that there had been a “fallout” between Bruce and Saint-Maximin over the head coach’s decision to leave him out of his starting XI against Burnley.

Maximin returned to the team for Tuesday night’s FA Cup win over West Bromwich Albion.

“There’s been a lot of nonsense written in a bid to derail us before a big cup tie,” said Bruce. “To have one of our players supposedly unhappy, and I've had a fallout with him – it's not true.

“Today vindicates why I left him out last week, because I didn’t think he was 100%.”