Ritchie: It’ll be tough

MATT RITCHIE reckons Newcastle’s defeat at Fulham on Friday served as a timely reminder that the Championship favourites won’t have it all their own way this season.

Rafa Benitez’s decision to stay at St James’ Park has seen Toon tipped to win the division at a canter.

Ritchie, a £12million signing from Bournemouth, was one of five new signings making their debut at Craven Cottage – and they were expected to lay down a marker. But after a good opening 20 minutes, Fulham fought back and deserved their 1-0 courtesy of Matt Smith’s header.

Ritchie said: “It’s obviously not the start we were looking for, but it could be a blessing in disguise.

“A lot of people have been saying how we should win the league and that we’re clear, outright favourites.

“But nothing is won before we have kicked a ball. We need to earn the right to win games and at Fulham we didn’t do that.

“So it could be good in that respect. It could be an eye-opener to see we have a lot of work to do.”

Benitez has invested heavily in Ritchie and Dwight Gayle, and Toon fans will hope to see more from those two and fellow frontman Ayoze Perez.

Ritchie added: “Me and Dwighty have been in the building since day one of pre-season, we’ve played with Ayo in training so I feel the relationships are good.

“We didn’t show that at Fulham, but there were good signs and hopefully in time it can only get better.”