Newcastle's Ayoze Perez hopeful partnership with Aleksandar Mitrovic will be given time to flourish

The Magpies travel to Portman Road this afternoon with Benitez weighing up whether to give Perez and Mitrovic the nod, after a positive link up between the pair in the Good Friday home draw with Leeds.

And having shown flashes of an understanding at the back end of last season, the duo have rarely been paired by Benitez this campaign.

Perez hopes that all changes this afternoon, and he and Serbian international Mitrovic can be given the chance to fire Newcastle back up to the Premier League.

When asked about the weekend link up, Perez said: “We had a great game.

“We had an opportunity to show everyone how well we can play together. We did a good job.

“We didn’t score. We are disappointed by that but we worked hard.”

Looking back to the game itself Perez was less positive.

Although he admits the players in the dressing-room are thankful that the Ipswich Town clash has come around so soon after the disappointment of Friday evening.

“It was really disappointing that we lost two points so late. We are not happy with it because we should be focused until the end,” he explained.

“Everyone in the dressing-room was upset. We knew that we had to win and we had it in our hands. Three points would have taken us one step closer to the Premier League.

“We can do nothing now.

“We have to move forward. We have another game to bounce back.

“It is a positive thing that we have a game to forget about what happened so quickly.

“We need to make sure that this time, we win it.

“It doesn’t matter how we get the points. We just need to get the promotion as soon as possible.”

Pressure is something that those on the terraces are certainly starting to feel at United.

It is not the same on the pitch, though, according to the former Tenerife man.

“We do not feel under any pressure,” he said.

“We know what we have to do.

“We have to win games. It is simple.”