Benitez rues ‘bad day’ at the office

RAFAEL BENITEZ has instructed his Newcastle players to put a bad day behind them after seeing their winning run ended by Wolves.

The hosts went into the game on a high after Tuesday’s 6-0 win at QPR and had taken a maximum 15 points from their previous five league outings, but never recovered from Chancel Mbemba’s first-half own goal as the visitors cemented a win with Helder Costa’s strike.

Asked if his players had allowed themselves to be carried away, Benitez said: ‘No, I don’t. It’s more about the decisions. The football decisions were wrong and then we put ourselves under pressure.

‘It’s a bad day but we have to analyse what was wrong and try to change it.

‘It’s not that you have to forget — you have to forget, but try to understand why and try to correct things as soon as possible.’

Benitez opted to make three changes to the side which excelled in midweek, but insisted that had no bearing on the result. He said: ‘You have to change players, but we did it before and we were winning.’

Wolves boss Walter Zenga was understandably thrilled with the way his side responded to Tuesday night’s 4-0 home defeat by Barnsley. He said: ‘I am delighted because I got an SHOOTING STAR: Helder Costa scores Wolves’ second goal at St James’ Park answer from the team. The players wanted to see a reaction themselves to show that it was a shock for everybody.

‘Playing at this stadium in front of 52,000 fans against a team that came from five victories in a row, four games without conceding a goal and the last game was 6-0 for them away and we lost 4-0 at home, the approach was important, and that is my satisfaction.’ READING boss Jaap Stam says his side’s resilient win was down to ‘commitment and communication’.

Garath McCleary, who was later sent off, and John Swift gave the away side a two-goal lead in the first half, before Adam Armstrong pulled one back in the last 10 minutes.

Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom refused to be too downbeat after the defeat. He said: ‘We’re enjoying every minute of life in this league.’