Ciaran Clark delivers candid assessment of Newcastle's toughest month yet in the Premier League

Rafa Benitez’s side went into Tuesday night’s game against West Bromwich Albion on the back of four successive defeats.

And Benitez looked to be heading for his first five-game losing streak as a manager in English football at The Hawthorns, where his team trailed by two goals.

However, a header from stand-in captain Ciaran Clark and an own goal saw Newcastle claim a point from a 2-2 draw.

Clark said: “We know ourselves as players that the run we’ve been on has not really been good enough from our end, but we tried to stay focused and working hard.

“We haven’t stopped doing that in training, and it’s obviously paid off.

“We knew at some point it would, and to come back from two goals down, it obviously has.

“It’s going to be a tough one on Saturday (at Chelsea) – we know that – but we’ll take great belief out of the second-half performance and bring it into the game at the weekend.”

United are in a mid-table position ahead of Saturday’s game against Premier League champions Chelsea.

“We started the season really well, and being promoted, there’s maybe a little bit of pressure,” said defender Clark. “But we just try to do the best we can – that’s all we can do as players.

“As players, and as a club, we try to do the best we can each week, and hopefully it’ll be good enough.”

On Newcastle’s comeback against West Brom, Clark added: “We’ll take a lot from the way we fought back.

“Even in the first half at Man United, we played really well, and there were positives there too. We were maybe a bit unlucky to go in a goal down at half-time (at Old Trafford).

“It was similar (against West Brom), really. We did all right in the first half, and didn’t feel too threatened.

“I know they hit the crossbar once, but we just have to take belief from this now, get prepared in the next few days in training and get ready for the game on Saturday.”