We can beat last season’s finish - Matt

NEWCASTLE United’s Matt Ritchie believes the club can finish higher than their 10th-place finish of last season.

Having won four of the last six games - including seeing off Manchester City and survival rivals Cardiff, Huddersfield and Burnley United now have a six-point cushion to the drop zone.

They lie on 31 points - just six points off the top half.

With only two of top four left to play this season, some are starting to think about more than just survival.

“I have been told we are two points better off than at the same stage last season so of course, it is possible,” Ritchie (below) said when asked about breaking into the top half of the table.

“Every season, your aim is to improve on the previous one.

“No one really believed me in August when I came out and said our aim was to finish higher than last season.

“We had a fantastic year and everyone was telling us we overachieved but, look, within the group we did not think that.

“The league table does not lie and we deserved that.

“I am not getting carried away, there are tough, tough games ahead, a lot of work to do to continue to perform as well as we have been doing.

“Hopefully with that will come the wins we need to keep climbing the table.”

Newcastle beat a Burnley side which had arrived at St James’ Park unbeaten in 2019 - but Rafa Benitez set his side-up to end the Clarets’ good run of form.

Ritchie, who covered 11.4 kilometres of ground during the game, was pleased with what he saw - but maintains that, despite the talk of looking up the table, the job is not done.

He added: “Burnley was a fantastic win for us but it is all about small margins.

“It was not easy for us because they had not been beaten in the league this year, so that just shows what a good display it was from us.

“We have done what we had to, strung together five or six really good, solid team displays and that is what we needed and what we thought we had in us.”