A disappointed Steve Bruce spoke to the media following the defeat to Fulham, and whilst he was rightly frustrated with the result and the performance, perspective left him looking at the bigger picture.
The Daily Mail were one of the first to cover Bruce’s post game press conference on Saturday evening and they praised him for the manner of his attitude in defeat and the words he had for our hosts on the day.
However, there was another angle to the defeat given Brucie’s own loss of his father in recent times.
With the gaffer returning to the dug out for the Birmingham City victory having taken some personal time out, he’s already had plenty of positive words for the staff at the club for their support of him and of course for the reactions, understanding and well wishes of the fans but he was asked the question of whether a return to football after his short period out had served as a distraction and helped him take his mind off things.
Bruce didn’t feel that was the case and he had a fresh perspective on things when it came to the ‘football bubble’ where the game is supposed to be ‘everything’ and ‘all important’.
He knew we missed Jack Grealish and Albert Adomah, but the defeat wasn’t based on them two missing out. Whilst our run of wins comes to an end he also didn’t feel it was a wake up call, nor would this result define our season.
He slowly shook his head at the suggestion that football had given him an escape from real life.
‘An escape? I don’t think so. It’s put my mind on something else but when you lose your father – and I have got a really sick mum at the moment, too – it puts it all in perspective.’
Plenty of things in life are considered an escape from reality, whether that’s sport, losing yourself in the TV or a film, exercise or even alcohol but even in the best attempts at ‘escape’, life bubbles on close to the surface.
‘It is a game of football. Yes, we all want to win. Yes, we all want to get promoted. Yes, it means a lot. But I’m not in that cliche where I’m going to say it’s everything. It’s not everything. I have had an extremely difficult couple of weeks but it’s life and you have to get on with it.’
Not describing football as ‘everything’ doesn’t mean it’s not something though and not important and I can imagine some of the more keyboardy warriors on social media will already be spinning this if Bruce isn’t their cup of tea, but I think he phrases it perfectly.
He’s still going to be peeved we didn’t take the win or even a point, he’ll be peeved (and the players will know it) with the performance and he’ll be determined we’re better next time.
Much like real life, football is the same though – ‘you get on with it’ – and Monday is a fresh week, we dust ourselves off and look to draw a line under the loss quickly with promotion being the aim.
Bruce had his own testament to that as he was thanked for turning up to the press conference given his own circumstances.
‘It’s my job.’
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