ISAAC HAYDEN has revealed how Newcastle United’s players have bought into the Rafael Benitez project by claiming everyone trusts whatever comes out of the former Real Madrid manager’s mouth.

The Magpies have established a healthy eight point lead over the play-off zone at the top of the Championship after winning seven league games in a row.

Newcastle’s form has left the rest of the division playing catch up and the mood on Tyneside has been completely transformed since Benitez agreed to take on the challenge with eight matches remaining last season.

Newcastle’s squad has a different feel to that which suffered relegation from the Premier League and Benitez has ensured the atmosphere in the camp is special even though he regularly rotates the players.

Hayden, a £5m signing from Arsenal in the summer, said: “Everyone is confident, everyone knows, and respects, what the manager is saying. Everyone sits there and listens to what the manager is saying because we believe in him.

“We all buy into what he is saying and that shows when we go out on to the pitch and for as long as we do that then we will always have a great chance. We always want to win every game, whether it is Barcelona, Manchester United or Barnsley, we want to win every game.

“I think that we are on a great run of results but that means nothing at the moment because we can’t win the league at this stage, we can’t win the league by winning the next game. It is just about getting the results over the season to get us where we want to be. We are focused on each individual game and everyone is confident.”

Newcastle’s seventh straight win in the Championship was a 2-1 victory over Cardiff City on Saturday, when Neil Warnock’s side could easily have left with a point after a tight second half.

It means Newcastle have gone from one international break to the next with a perfect 15 points from the five matches, as well as progressing to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup.

Hayden said: “I don’t personally look at the run at all. It sounds nice to say we have won eight in a row but at the moment we can’t get promoted by winning eight games in a row and we could lose the next one.

“It is each individual game and we have to prepare for every game as they come along. We have to just keep going. The manager keeps drumming into us that we have to keep going.”

Hayden has impressed in the centre of Newcastle’s midfield since arriving from Arsenal on a five-year deal and his performances have earned him a call to the England Under-21s squad this week. He hopes to figure in Thursday’s friendly with Italy.

He was positive against Cardiff and had a key part to play in Christian Atsu’s opening goal after he linked up with Aleksandar Mitrovic in the build-up. Newcastle should have gone on to win comfortably after Yoan Gouffran added a second shortly before half-time, but the Bluebirds made it hard in the second half.

Newcastle still secured the points, though. Hayden, knowing Newcastle don’t play until the trip to Leeds on Sunday week, said: “I think where we are shows the mentality of the group, the fans and everyone involved with the club at the moment.

“We are on a winning run and it almost felt like a loss when we were talking to people after Saturday’s game because we could have done more. At the end of the day we needed three points and we got them.

“We should have got the third, we had the chances and didn’t take them. You can always take lessons from games, maybe we were a bit sloppy in possession in certain situations. We had to take our chances and had we taken them then it would have been game over.”