“I AM seriously considering quitting TV, but I knew it might cause a bit of controversy,” joked Steve Bruce yesterday in the press room at the Academy of Light.

He has received more stick for naming David Beckham man of the match for his cameo appearance for England in midweek than he has had from the stands during the vast majority of his managerial career - by some way.

When Bruce handed the sponsors’ man of the match to Beckham after the comfortable final World Cup qualifier win over Belarus on Wednesday even I was surprised – for a few seconds anyway.

But on reflection I can see why. It took me less than a minute to actually agree with him. I was bored stiff watching that match until Beckham entered the fray, so it seems was the Sunderland boss.

“Incredible I have never known such a carry on. When I was in the stadium he came on to the pitch and let's be fair for 50 minutes it was dull, boring uninteresting,” said Bruce, a pundit in the ITV studio at Wembley.

“When he came on and the whole stadium in unison rises to him, I thought ‘blooming heck, wow, fantastic, now Dave what you got’. And for me for 35 minutes he lit up Wembley with his attitude.”

But Bruce has been hammered from pillar to post for his assessment. His judgement was called a “grotesque honour” for Becks in the Daily Mail by columnist Jeff Powell. “I looked over the paper and Mr Powell’s correspondent gave Crouch a 9 and man of the match and Beckham an 8. And he was caning me for an insult to English football,” said Bruce.

It wasn’t just Powell doing the knocking and it is safe to assume Stan Collymore is not on his Christmas card list either.

“Then there was that other idiot Stan Collymore and I had to switch the radio off, that was totally embarrassing, don't get me tied up with that one,” said Bruce after being singled out by Collymore on Talksport.

England boss Fabio Capello actually likened Beckham’s man of the match award to President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Price.

“Yes I was a bit surprised Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize considering he is sending hundreds of troops to Afghanistan to go to war,” said Bruce. “But certainly with David Beckham, for anyone who was there, he lit up a dull boring game with his presence.

“In my opinion he came on, lit up a dire game and did what he had to do and some of the stuff that’s been said, written …”

Now Bruce knows how we feel at The Northern Echo. Every Monday morning we are hammered for our ratings in our Football pull-out. Remember … it’s a game of opinions.