Isaac Hayden reveals why Newcastle's players were DOWN after recovering an eighth successive win

Rafa Benitez’s side beat the then-Championship leaders 4-3 at St James’s Park in late September.

Dwight Gayle and Yoan Gouffran scored in injury time to claim three important points for United, who haven’t looked back since.

Newcastle beat Cardiff City 2-1 on Saturday to stretch their winning run to eight league and cup games.

Fifth-placed Norwich, meanwhile, are now 10 points behind league leading United going into the international break.

Newcastle were third going into the last international break.

Asked what had changed on the pitch, midfielder Isaac Hayden said: “I think, looking at the Norwich game, when we turned that round to win 4-3, that gave us a lift, it has killed them in terms of confidence and they have lost again on Saturday.

“We have to just keep going. The manager keeps drumming into us that we have to keep going. “

Hayden – who helped Hull City win promotion to the Premier League last season during a season-long loan from Arsenal – said the Cardiff result “almost felt like a loss”.

Benitez’s players were frustrated that they hadn’t got a third goal to kill Neil Warnock’s side off.

And their post-game reaction was telling, according to Hayden.

“I think where we are shows the mentality of the group, the fans and everyone involved with the club at the moment,” said the 21-year-old. “We’re on a winning run, and it almost felt like a loss when we were talking to people after Saturday’s game, because we could have done more.

“But at the end of the day we needed three points, and we got them.

“We should have got the third goal, we had the chances and didn’t take them.

“You can always take lessons from games, maybe we were a bit sloppy in possession in certain situations.

“We had to take our chances and had we taken them then it would have been game over.

“At 2-0, it is always a dangerous scoreline. They got one back, so made it a bit nervous.”