Benitez singles out Perez for high praise

Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez was quick to praise forward Ayoze Perez after he struck twice in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Ipswich on Saturday.

The Spaniard opened the scoring after just one minute and the Magpies kicked on from there.

He then added a second in the 73rd minute before former Bournemouth winger Matt Ritchie fired home the third.

Saturday’s win moved Newcastle three points clear at the top of the Championship table, with Brighton, Huddersfield Town and Norwich close on their heels.

Newcastle, 1.50 favourites to win the Championship title, have now won five games in a row in the league and Benitez believes Saturday’s win shows the Magpies’ strength in depth.

He left Perez out of Tuesday’s win over Barnsley and the former Real Madrid coach was delighted with his response after bringing him back into the line-up on Saturday.

“It’s important for him, he did well and worked hard. I didn’t play him in the last game, but he did a good job,” he told reporters.

“It’s good for him but also good for the team because it means we can change players and they can perform.

It’s another good win, because it’s not easy to win in this competition. We played really well in the first half, we had chances and could have scored more goals but we didn’t do it so we had to work hard in the second half.

“It’s important to keep confidence high and the only way is working hard. We know every game is difficult and we have to be ready.

After the second goal we had more control. It was easy at the end but you could see the difficulty we had at the start of the second half.”