Most important thing – Benitez

have to be happy – especially now at this stage of the season, it’s the most important thing.

“I would like to score five goals and play an amazing game like we were doing in a lot of games in the past, but we have to be sure we show character, good reaction and personality.

“We have to improve a little bit on the ball and manage better under pressure.

“When we have chances, we must manage a bit better.

“There are a lot of things we can still improve and a lot of things we are doing well.

“I see Brighton winning 1-0 or Huddersfield losing 1-0, it means that it’s not easy for anyone.”

But Benitez is hoping his team can improve in time for the visit of the Brewers this week.

He said: “I think if you analyse the season, we have had a lot of good games.

“We’ve had high tempo and pushed and created with the ball really well.

“Today we had 18 attempts so we must show more composure on the ball and in the final third.

“If we can, it will make us more relaxed to play better.”

Newcastle won the game 2-1 thanks to Matt Ritchie’s winner in the second half.

But they could have had a penalty when the Scotland international was upended in the box.

Benitez said: “I was telling the referee it was a penalty and said it was exaggerated.

“After I watched the replay and it was a penalty, so it doesn’t matter if it was exaggerated or not, a penalty is a penalty.

“It’s three points in the mini league and we’ll move on to the next one.”