STEVE Bruce feels talk of an early-season crisis at Newcastle United has been blown out of proportion.

Two defeats in their opening two Premier League games have been against the constant backdrop of off-field angst amongst supporters.

Bruce endured a miserable defeat at Norwich last weekend, after which he got his players back in for Sunday training 24 hours after the Carrow Road reverse.

Ahead of Sunday’s Premier League game at Spurs, the boss admitted: “The lads have trained well and we look forward to Sunday. The lads were fine with Sunday’s session, I don’t know where that nonsense comes from – it’s something I’ve done before in the past and here it’s sensationalised unfortunately.

“The reaction of the players has been fine. We didn’t play well, we have to do better and we didn’t play well enough at Norwich.

“It’s a bit early for soul searching, we just have to perform better than last week.

“Reaction here is not for me to judge on - it is up to others to be fair and responsible. There’s a so-called mini crisis here after two games, but I understand that it’s the nature of the club. At the minute we are in a storm and the only way to get out of it is a couple of results.

“After two games it’s too early to judge yet.

“Inside the club, players, staff are the ones who really count. I’ve been here five weeks and everyone has been terrific.

“The only way to shut people up is to do better.’’

Bruce’s tactics and formation came under scrutiny last weekend, much like they did in the opening defeat to Arsenal at St James’ Park when

“The overall performance last week? We didn’t do enough or play well enough and that’s still my opinion now. We look for a better performance on Sunday.

“We are only two games in and we know the early fixtures were going to be difficult and I’m under no illusion it will be until we get a result.

“Players have trained well all week and trained hard, they know we didn’t play well enough – it’s simple.’’

Of his injured players, Bruce added: “We home Saint-Maximin is OK, too early for Andy Carroll and Dwight Yorke, but the others are OK. Atsu has been on the pitch all week and it was good to see him.

“Joelinton has been OK this week. I felt we did very well against Arsenal for long periods, we may tinker a bit and change one or two things but it’s too early to radically changing formations when we have only played twice.’’