Not the reaction Benitez wanted to the Everton defeat
Losing to a rookie boss won’t have pleased the Spaniard, but the manner in which his players responded to the loss at Everton would have vexed Benitez even more.
This was viewed as an easy three points by most Magpies supporters who rightly felt United had the quality to comfortably beat the Premier League’s bottom club on home turf, despite West Brom’s recent revival under Moore.
But the torpid, pitiful excuse for a performance that was posted by Newcastle was harder to swallow than the actual defeat itself, especially after the players worked so hard to achieve a position of safety over the last four months by beating some of the top flight’s big sides.
For most of the 52,283 inside St James’ Park, they knew the players were far, far better than this – a fact that wasn’t lost on Benitez either.
