RAGING Steve Bruce and Jamaal Lascelles launched a blistering attack on their own team and claimed they ‘surrendered,’ during yesterday’s humiliating 5-0 defeat at Leicester.
Newcastle played the entire second half with 10 men after Isaac Hayden was sent off for an X-rated challenge on Belgian international Dennis Praet two minutes before half-time.
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Toon were already trailing to a Ricardo Pereira goal after allowing the full-back to stroll to the edge of their area.
And the rot swiftly followed that reckless act of stupidity as the Magpies ran up the white flag, while Bruce suffered on the sidelines as the ‘horror-show,’ unfolded in front of his eyes.
Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes scored four second half goals to romp to their biggest ever Premier League win.
Afterwards Bruce blasted: “It was a complete surrender and happened too quickly, too easily.
“I’ve only been at the club two or three months and I certainly haven’t witnessed what I witnessed here. Too many felt sorry for themselves.
“It was nowhere near what’s required. If you have 10 men or nine men, the one thing you can show is a bit off resilience. Determination, a bit of fight or courage, whatever you want to call it.
“We simply haven’t done enough to put anything right.
“That’s the disappointing thing for myself, resilience is the only thing I really genuinely, demand from them – to play in a certain way – but we didn’t see that here.”
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Lascelles was just as scathing as he turned his anger towards his own teammates and confessed: “That was terrible from the boys. It is no one’s fault but ourselves.
“We went a man down but we still had 10 on the pitch and leaking four goals is not acceptable. The way we conceded the goals was terrible and it has never happened before.
“The boys do care and the man down was disadvantage but you can still roll your sleeves up because it is not good enough.”
Bruce was criticised for his ‘outdated,’ tactics by former Toon striker Michael Chopra when he replaced Rafa Benitez at St James’ Park but Lascelles said the blame lay closer to home.
He said: “We have had a rollicking off the gaffer and we really need to look at ourselves in the mirror.
“You have to make it hard for them. It is not good enough.
“It doesn’t matter what manager you have, you have to have pride yourself and ensure you win your duels. We really need to sit down and look back at that.”
Bruce added: “What did I say to the players afterwards? You don’t really want know, it’s unrepeatable.
“We haven’t done the basics well enough and on a big stage like this, against a good team, then you’re going to find it very difficult, and we have done.”
Hayden booted himself into the record books when he was red-carded for a scything over-the-ball tackle on Praet which left the Belgian writhing on the turf.
It was a potential leg-breaker and, as tempers flared, the incensed midfielder incredibly, tried to protest his innocence to ref Craig Pawson.
Yet it was his second rush of blood to the head in just over a year after he was sent off for another controversial challenge on Cardiff City’s Josh Murphy, 22 minutes after coming on as a sub last August.
He is the only player in the Prem to have been shown two reds since the start of last season and Bruce refused to defend the indefensible.
“The red card, I’ve no complaints,” he said. “It was a poor challenge.
“In my day, you might have got away with that. But I’ve got no argument, it was the right decision.”
Newcastle’s Toon Army backed their team to the bitter end and fellow Geordie Bruce said: “The supporters make the club what it is, but we can’t take that for granted either.
“We need to give them something to shout about. A team playing with a bit of determination, passion and heart. That needs to be a given.
“Unfortunately, I can’t defend it, ultimately I accept the responsibility as manager or coach, it’s as bad an afternoon as I can remember.
“The entire team performance, the whole lot of them were nowhere near what was required to make a fist of it in the Premier League.”
He also threatened to wield the axe ahead of his side’s next two games at home to Manchester United and away to Chelsea.
“There are other people waiting patiently and I’ll look at that over the next week or so,” he warned.
Brendan Rodgers meanwhile says he is looking forward to taking his third-placed Foxes back to Anfield to face his former club Liverpool on Saturday.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to it because I haven’t been back since I left. It’s an incredible club which was great for me in my time there.
“I learned so much and was given great experiences. Of course they’ve been amazing these last couple of years – Champions’ League winners so I’m looking forward to going back.
“It will be a tough game of course but we’ll look to embrace that challenge and have a good week’s training leading into it after this.”
