RAFAEL BENITEZ remains ‘confident’ that Newcastle United can land at least one player to boost the promotion push before tonight’s transfer deadline.

The Magpies are actively working behind the scenes in a bid to strike a deal with Crystal Palace that would see Andros Townsend return to St James’ Park.

Both clubs are haggling over the terms of the agreement, with Palace understood to want a £13m fee set in stone if promotion arrives in the summer as well as a £2m loan fee.

Benitez is still keen on bringing in a new centre-midfielder but Newcastle have struggled to come up with deal for Everton’s James McCarthy.

The Newcastle boss said: “No news, nothing, we have trained this morning. I am still confident we can do something good for the team. I am keen we can do something interest for the team.”

Both Tim Krul and Cheik Tiote also look set to be leaving Newcastle. Krul, the Dutch goalkeeper, is heading for Watford after having his loan with Ajax cut short and Tiote is nearing a move to China to be reunited with Papiss Cisse at Shandong Luneng Taishan.

Benitez said: “The only one is that Tiote is almost finished, hopefully he will be able to go. We are working hard. He was talking with some clubs in China, now it is just the one. I won’t say more.”

Newcastle have no fresh injuries but Daryl Murphy looks set to return to the Newcastle team that faces Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday night.

Benitez is desperate to get a deal or two done even if they don’t figure against QPR, just to give everyone a lift after the weekend FA Cup defeat to League One’s Oxford when he fielded a weakened side.

He said: “You have to analyse everything in the contest, we were playing against Birmingham City and we played really well so we thought the same team would be good enough to beat Oxford.

“We did well in the first half. The main thing for me is we feel sorry for the fans. They wanted us to go through. Given the circumstances of the injuries, the Africa Cup of Nations and the problems we have in terms of the squad we couldn’t do it.

“We still felt the squad was good enough to win it. The fans expected a good run in the cup and we couldn’t do it.”

He added: “I know where we are but my focus is only on the next game. I will see the table in April but at the moment it is important just to look at next game. QPR I have watched them and they have changed their systems, quite difficult for us. We want to win and we will try to play well.”