WHILE last Wednesday the Championship’s leading scorers demonstrated their prowess in front of goal during a dramatic 4-3 win, Newcastle United were required to rely on another side to their game on Saturday.

The 1-0 victory over rock-bottom Rotherham United will not live in the memory as long as last week’s thrilling success over fellow promotion contenders Norwich City.

Yet the narrow success at the New York Stadium, thanks to Christian Atsu’s goal, was just the type of win which underlines Newcastle’s promotion credentials.

Newcastle found themselves under pressure for periods against a determined bunch with fire in their bellies, Rafael Benitez’s team having to scrap it out, as they will occasionally in the Championship.

Both the opening and closing stages were particularly tense for the Magpies, the Millers giving it everything, going on to win 14 corners to Newcastle’s ten and hitting the woodwork twice, but they could not penetrate a defence which was much improved on last Wednesday’s leaky showing.

“It was another clean sheet and that means we are working hard in defence,” said Benitez.

“But I will give praise not only to the keeper and the defender, but also to the rest of the team because Mo Diame and Dwight Gayle were working very hard trying to stop their centre-backs, the midfielders were working hard.

“So that shows the team was working hard – and that is the main thing we need to keep doing.

“We need to work hard every game and then our quality will get us these results.”

Benitez’s team remain third, three points off the top ahead of the international break, and have now conceded only twice in six away matches.

It’s a statistic that was threatened during a lively first 20 minutes on Saturday when facing a team who had not played in midweek, Rotherham obeying manager Alan Stubbs’ instructions to attack from the off.

“You’ve got to rattle them, get in their faces early,” revealed Rotherham’s Dominic Ball. “The manager said ‘they’ve had a game on Wednesday, they’ve had less time to recover, they won’t like it, and I don’t think they did.”

Keeper Karl Darlow tipped over a Joe Newell volley, Rotherham forward Izzy Brown saw a shot deflected wide and Jon Taylor saw a rasping effort clip the crossbar as a blur of red shirts swarmed the Magpies’ half, not giving Newcastle time on the ball.

Justifying relegation-threatened Rotherham’s scoring opportunities, Benitez said: “I cannot see too many teams defending corners and these kind of long throw-ins that Rotherham had without having at least some problems.

“When you’re playing against a good team you have to keep pressing to stop them from creating chances.

“We had chances on the counter attack and that’s important too.”

Newcastle weathered the storm, however, the match levelling out before the break, and Stubbs later said: “One bit of quality between the two teams has been the difference.” He was referring to Atsu’s sublime 41st-minute goal, curling in from the corner of the penalty area after a lay-off by Jonjo Shelvey, a fine way for the attacker to mark his first league start for the club.

After a handful of appearances from the bench, Atsu started on the right wing and provided some moments of excitement, repaying Benitez for selecting him ahead of the rested Matt Ritchie.

The manager said: “It was a great goal from a player who has been doing it in training and you are hoping he can do it in games too. It was a fantastic goal.

“He has been training really well, he has pace and mobility and we felt by moving the ball to wide areas he could go one-v-one against defenders.”

The opening stages of the second half were less frenetic, Newcastle content to be a goal ahead and in control.

Yoan Gouffran, otherwise anonymous, had a shot deflected wide after a nice touch by Atsu, and a save by keeper Lee Camp kept out Atsu after he was played in by Mohamed Diame.

Spirited Rotherham cranked up the pressure in the closing stages, Newcastle showing resolve to earn the points with centre-backs Jamaal Lascelles and Ciaran Clark both dependable throughout.

Clark cleared off the line after the Millers had hit the post with five minutes to go when Gouffran stuck a leg out at a corner, an escape for Newcastle, and soon Benitez sent on Grant Hanley and switched to a five-man defence to protect the lead.

“You have to credit our players because against a good team, who were pushing and pressing, we were still capable of winning and creating chances,” pointed out Benitez.

“The main thing for me is that they had ten attempts and we had 20, we had more possession and we had chances on the counter-attack too.

“I’m really pleased with but still there is room for improvement..

“If we can keep winning games while we improve, then even better, but still we must keep working hard to do this.”