Matt Ritchie claims QPR win proves he was right to drop down a level to join Newcastle

Ritchie was a key performer in Newcastle’s record-equalling 6-0 win at QPR, laying on Ayoze Perez’s first-half goal with a sumptuous cross and terrorising full-back Nedum Onuoha with a series of effective bursts down the left-hand side.

Eyebrows were raised when the Scotland international left Bournemouth to drop into the Championship, with his £12m price tag making him one of the most expensive players ever to have played in the second tier.

However, he always viewed the move to Tyneside as a step in the right direction when it came to furthering his career, and this week’s six-goal spectacular makes him even more convinced he make the right decision.

“The experience of the game at QPR was the reason I came to Newcastle,” said Ritchie, who is one of just six players to have been involved in all of the Magpies’ league games this season. “I want to have nights like that, and I want to have success and try to be part of something special at the football club.

“I don’t want to speak too soon because it’s still early days, but hopefully we’re building the foundations to achieve that.

“It’s nice to have been part of history, although it’s a bit of a shame not to have beaten the record to be honest because we went close to getting a seventh. We dominated in the first half and took our chances, and then in the second half we got a real foothold in the game and controlled it throughout.”

Newcastle’s free-flowing attacking play was too slick for QPR to handle, with Ritchie and Jonjo Shelvey controlling midfield while Perez and Aleksandar Mitrovic made a series of perfectly-timed attacking runs further up the field.

Things were equally impressive at the back, with Matz Sels barely having to make a save, and while Newcastle’s attackers have deservedly hogged the limelight in the last few days, the quality of the Magpies’ defending was every bit as notable.

It is now 495 minutes since Newcastle last conceded a goal, a run that represents the club’s best defensive performance since the spring of 1982.

“A lot of credit has to go to the back four,” said Ritchie. “We scored six goals, but the most important thing was that we kept another clean sheet. That’s a key thing in this league – keeping clean sheets.

“With the quality we’ve got up top, we’re always going to score goals, so if we continue to defend well as well, it’ll be a good combination. The clean sheets are going to be key to our success.”

The challenge now is to keep the run going when Wolves visit St James’ Park tomorrow. The Molineux club suffered a 4-0 home defeat to Barnsley on Tuesday, and Italian manager Walter Zenga already finds himself coming under pressure despite only having been appointed in the summer.

Newcastle will start as strong favourites tomorrow afternoon, but despite their fine recent form, Ritchie is warning against the dangers of complacency.

“Football changes quickly, and that (the QPR success) was only one win,” he said. “We need to keep our foot on the gas now and make sure we continue to get better and progress.

“The good thing is that we have a good squad, a big squad, and there will be players who didn’t play at QPR who will be champing at the bit to get into the team. Some people will say Tuesday was a bit of a statement, but we know we have to keep fighting in every game to stay in and around the top of the league.

“We need to follow the win up now. We need to make St James’ Park a fortress. We’ve had a couple of good victories there of late, and we need to continue that now with a couple of home games coming up. Hopefully we can perform well and, most importantly, keep clean sheets and score more goals. That’s a good chemistry to have.”

There will be a temptation for Rafael Benitez to name an unchanged side tomorrow, but the Newcastle boss will continue to rotate his squad in an attempt to prevent his players suffering muscular injuries.

With a hectic schedule throughout September, Benitez claims it is impossible to ask players to play three games in a week over a prolonged period of time.

“We are trying to change some things,” said the Newcastle boss. “Part of it is to change players to give them more rest by rotating them. We don’t need to risk any players.

“The medical department work very hard and we have a new fitness coach, a new physio and we have a very good atmosphere between them. They are all working hard together, we try to manage the situation with them.

“Sometimes, when you have a player with a little problem, the doctor can tell you it is a risk so we can make sure we don’t take the risk and play someone else. If you push players then maybe they can get injured and we are trying to manage this.”