Veteran Aaron Wilbraham, 40, struck late to snatch a richly-deserved 1-1 draw for League One Rochdale at the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday.
Wilbraham combined with fellow substitute Luke Matheson, 23 years his junior, to equalise in the 79th minute after Miguel Almiron had put the Premier League side in front.
Bruce had named his strongest possible Newcastle line-up and the Magpies ought to have been home and dry by half-time after a thoroughly dominant first 45 minutes.
But Brian Barry-Murphy’s men stormed out for the second half and Oliver Rathbone had three fantastic opportunities as the underdogs visibly grew in confidence before Wilbraham’s strike.
It could have been even better for Rochdale with Rathbone firing a glorious chance wide in the final minute as the visitors, remarkably, were left clinging on for an entirely unwanted replay.
After the game, Bruce told talkSPORT the injury to Yoshinori Muto effectively took the game out of the Magpies’ hands.
“Listen, for as good as we were in the first half, we were disappointing in the second,” he said. “I do think the couple of injuries, another two, was too much.
“Rochdale made a cup tie of it in the second half, I expected them to. But our frailties are there for everyone to see.
“We don’t score enough, we’ve created and played some great football today and basically the cup tie should have been out of sight.
JOELINTON 19/20 STATS (ALL COMPS)
The £40m signing just has the solitary goal this season
- Appearances – 22
- Goals – 1
- Assists – 2
- Yellow Cards – 4