Bruce: A Frustrating Day

Bruce has admitted that Stoke frustrated us and he wasn’t pleased with the reaction of a section of the crowd.

‘It was frustrating day today but we won 1-0 and although we haven’t played very well we’ll take it.

‘But we’ve gone second in the league now with two games in hand and it’s still not good enough.

‘What I’ve witnessed and experienced today has saddened me a little bit really, but there you go I’ll just get on with it.

‘We’ve got a lot of young lads out there and they need the help of the fans rather than booing and jeering, which is what we’re starting to do.

‘Right from ten or 15 minutes in we knew we weren’t playing well and we were giving the ball away more than we should, but the crowd were on their backs and that creates even more nervousness and edginess.

‘If they support the team and get behind them and I’m sure they’ll see a better response than they witnessed today.

‘I make plea to everybody that supports the club to get behind us.

‘There’s a deep frustration for whatever reason but lets go and give it our best shot because everybody else is.

‘Stephen Clemence hasn’t been 100per cent fit all week, but he’s an honest player and he really wanted to play like he always does.

‘I thought he was struggling a bit and I decided at that point to make a change.

‘Then to get the reaction that I did- I think I deserve a bit more respect than that.

‘At the moment it seems as if we’re trying to shoot ourselves in the foot and it’s very frustrating.’