Mags learn a hard lesson in Blackburn defeat, says Benitez

Dwight Gayle rues a missed chance in Newcastle's Championship defeat to Blackburn

Charlie Mulgrew’s second-half goal condemned Benitez’s side to a 1-0 Championship defeat on Saturday.

Thatk ended the Magpies’ run of nine successive victories and saw Brighton close the gap on the leaders to two points.

Newcastle had been odds-on favourites, but third-bottom Blackburn deserved the three points.

And Benitez – who made six changes to his starting XI – was disappointed with his team’s performance and the way David Coote refereed a game punctuated by stoppages and free-kicks.

“I think in the first half some of the players maybe were expecting an easy game and were surprised, but it wasn’t and we knew that,” said Benitez.

“But then after, once you’ve gone in at half-time, then you are fixing things and in the first 15 minutes of the second half we were creating chances and we were on top of them.

“Also we were talking about not making mistakes, because they will look for set-pieces, for long balls and second balls and see what happens. In the end, that’s what happens, so we were talking about that and we have to be careful with that, but we got it wrong.”

Newcastle have the chance to put the defeat behind them tomorrow night when they visit Hull City in an EFL Cup quarter-final.

Benitez, however, was adamant that the changes he made to his team for the Blackburn game were NOT with the cup in mind.

“Obviously, if you change players then people will say ‘oh, you are just thinking about the cup’,” he said.

“No, I was thinking about winning against Blackburn and then to approach the other one with the same mentality. We had been changing players and we were doing the same.

“We didn’t show the character and quality we normally show though. We have to learn and quickly change things and be ready for the next game. It is an opportunity to get into the next round.”

Benitez surprisingly left captain Jamaal Lascelles and top scorer Dwight Gayle on the bench and recalled Chancel Mbemba and Aleksandar Mitrovic. He said: “It’s not that you are preserving some players because of the Hull game, it’s just that we thought these players could win this game.”

Newcastle: Darlow, Yedlin, Mbemba (Gayle 85), Clark, Gamez (Dummett 55), Ritchie, Hayden, Shelvey, Atsu, Perez, Mitrovic. Subs: Lascelles, Anita, Diame, Gouffran, Sels. Booked: Hayden.

Blackburn: Steele, Marshall, Lenihan, Mulgrew, Williams, Feeney, Lowe, Evans, Conway, Gallagher (Emnes 62), Graham. Subs not used: Stokes, Akpan, Nyambe, Brown, Bennett, Raya. Booked: Conway, Lowe, Marshall. Goal: Mulgrew 75.

Att: 52,092. Ref: David Coote (Nottinghamshire).