We must create and and take chances

NEWCASTLE United boss Rafa Benitez has issued a stark reminder of exactly where the club are at the moment.

The Magpies lost for the second successive Premier League game after going down 1-0 against AFC Bournemouth, and Benitez was far from happy with a number of factors during the defeat against the Cherries.

Benitez’s side are still six points clear of the relegation zone but the result proved to be a sobering one for Newcastle fans.

The Toon manager said after the game: “We have to understand that in these sort of games we have to do better.

“We have created chances in every game, you have to score.

“We have to keep going, we are Newcastle United, a good team that has been promoted.”

The United boss was annoyed by Dwight Gayle’s goal being disallowed in the first half and Newcastle’s failure to keep possession.

He went on: “In football, you have to play well, create chances and take them and don’t make mistakes, and we didn’t do that.

“I will not talk about the decisions because I am not very happy with the decisions.

“When you lose, it doesn’t matter if it is tough or not for you.

“We lost, we didn’t do what we had to do on a lot of occasions and our mistakes, in the end we paid for that.

“We gave the ball away easily without great pressing, and we were giving them chances to play on the counterattack.”

Benitez said the defeat was self-inflicted after missing first half chances.

He said: “As I said before, we were making mistakes in possession, easy mistakes, not because of amazing pressing.

“It was because we were just giving them the chance to play on the counter-attack.

“They played direct, they ran, they knew what they had to do and we gave them the chance to believe that they could score.”