Rafael Benitez Delighted With His Side's 'Intensity' in Comfortable Win Over Southampton

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez was full of praise for his side's 3-0 win against a lacklustre Southampton on Saturday.

A first half brace from Kenedy and second half strike from Matt Ritchie was enough for the win, although the Magpies dominated proceedings from start to finish, much to the delight of Benitez.

Speaking post-match to Sky Sports, he said: "It was a great game. I think we needed to play with the intensity we played with from the beginning.

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"The early goal gave us more confidence but overall the performance was really good. We knew we needed to play with a high tempo if we wanted to get something from the game.

"They also have players up front who have ability so we needed to stop them playing and we did well. After, we were moving the ball well and playing quick counter-attacks so there were a lot of positives for us."

The win for Newcastle was their first since their 1-0 win against Manchester United a month ago, which sees them move up three places to 16th in the Premier League. 

Newcastle must now wait 21 days until their next game against Huddersfield due to Tottenham's involvement in the FA Cup and the upcoming international break.

As a result, the North East side will head to Spain for a four day training camp, although Benitez hopes his players can take the confidence of their win against the Saints into their next game. 

He stated: "We know that it's not ideal but it's what we have so we have to manage these three weeks and we have to be ready for the next game.

"This result can give us a lot of confidence and belief. There are still a lot of games to play but at least you know you can play in this way and you can get points. We have confidence we can do it."