Newcastle United's January loan signing Nabil Bentaleb has insisted he did not make an offensive gesture to the travelling fans at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Toon players made their way over to the sold-out away end at the final whistle with 2,800 supporters far from impressed with their side's lacklustre.
On a day in which Newcastle served up a performance that resulted in just two shots on target against a Crystal Palace side that had not won since Boxing Day before yesterday, some fans were rightly asking what the performance was all about.
Soon after the game suggestions that Bentaleb had offended some fans surfaced on Twitter, but the player himself took to the social media platform to explain.
Bentaleb said: "(It) never happened I just had some friends standing with the away fans and waved at them, gutted with the loss!
"I would never ever disrespect the fans in a million years."
"Just a bad day at the office, now we move on."
With Newcastle slumped in 14th place in the Premier League, Bruce stated he may look to make tactical changes for the next game against Burnley.
He said: "We didn't ask questions, maybe it is a time to change - we have to score to win a game.
"It was difficult with the conditions, but we have no complaints saying the better team won."