Newcastle United No2 John Carver felt Steve Bruce was treated harshly by Sunderland.

Carver is close to his fellow Geordie.

"I saw Steve a couple of weeks ago and he's in a good place at the moment. He's obviously disappointed with what happened but he's looking to get back into work as quickly as possible," he told the Sunday Sun.

"I know he was in for the whole Wolves situation but he'll be back in the game quickly because he's a good guy. I'm sure he'll have one eye on the game on Sunday . . .

"I think he was always on a hiding to nothing because of his background. I thought he was very successful - I thought he did a good job. But there was always going to be a time when he would have a bad run of results and because of who he was and where he was from, that was held against him.

"In a strange way, I thought he was on a hiding to nothing."