Perez: It is so vital Terriers don’t bite us

NEWCASTLE United forward Ayoze Perez believes a victory over Huddersfield Town next weekend will put Premier League survival within the ‘hands’ of the Magpies.

With eight games to go, only seven points separate 19th to 13th in the top flight with both United and Huddersfield deeply embroiled in the battle to beat the drop.

However, Perez is hoping his side can claim three points against Huddersfield and boost their chances of staying in the Premier League.

He said: “That game at home with our fans is going to be another final.

“It has been like that over the last two months. Every point is like gold, so it is going to be a massive game.

“If we can win this game, we would be really, really close, we would have it in our hands, so that is the importance of the game.

“We will make sure we compete and we are ready for that fight, because it is going to be tough.”

The Newcastle players have been back at the club’s Benton training base after spending last weekend in Spain at a warm-weather training camp – but Perez has revealed training has been just as tough as ever.

He added: “Now, we are back in Newcastle and we have still been working really hard, so it has been a great idea to keep ourselves fit.

“For the last few days it has been back to normal.

“We have still been training a lot – great training sessions, hard work, trying to improve little things.

“We have not had the international boys but we have still been working and trying to make sure we are doing a lot of positive things.”

United drew 1-1 with Royal Antwerp while in Spain and Perez (below), who has made the No 10 role his own this season, believes it was a huge benefit going away for the four days.

He said: “It was the right idea to get a friendly game, with 21 days without football.

“The legs need to keep working and we did it well.

“It was not really sunny, not really hot.

“It was I think the proper weather for football, the right temperature, so it was really good.

“We had three days of spending time together and training really hard with double sessions, so in terms of hard work we did it.”