RAFA BENITEZ is convinced Newcastle United will still win the fight against relegation in the Premier League despite seeing the winless start to the season extend to nine matches.

The Magpies’ worst start to a top-flight season continued when Brighton’s 1-0 victory was secured at St James’ Park courtesy of Beram Kayal’s 29th minute winner.

The reversal means Newcastle, who have lost all five of their home dates so far, have dropped to the foot of the table and are three points safety ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Southampton.

Benitez said: “I have said before it is difficult, it is still difficult. It is a long race. We have to keep going and we have to make sure we keep going at this level and score goals. I am still convinced (we can stay up).”

He added: “Everyone can see that the team tried everything. Sometimes, when you talk about games when you talk about us having to defend against some teams, today we had 27 attempts, we had control, they had a corner, which wasn’t a corner, and they scored.

“The last five minutes they had some chances when we were giving the ball away. Too many things, too much control, we have to be more clinical in the final third.”

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley was in the stands for the fourth game in a row after Benitez, whose decision to replace Yoshinori Muto with Joselu in the second half was booed by fans, had said he did not fear the sack beforehand.

Asked if the lack of investment in the summer was to blame, Benitez said: “The time is to talk about the game. In the past, before the beginning of the season, I spoke about where we were.

“Today I speak about the chances created, we did well, they managed the game, and we didn’t create enough clear cut and we didn’t take the chances we had.

“Everybody is a bit down now. We have lost a game we deserved to win or at least get something, it is difficult to explain when you have these situations. The way we attack and control we had the chances.

“When we finished the game, you know we had the chances, so to concede this goal you have to be down. We have to react and we have to make sure we play well and create chances.”

Brighton - who reported afterwards that striker Glenn Murray was fine after his clash of heads with Federico Fernandez - won away from home for the first time in almost a year.

But the Seagulls’ former Newcastle boss Chris Hughton is certain his old club can turn it round.

Hughton said: “I think, they have had spells like this before, they had a difficult spell last season, eventually they turned it round and finished in tenth.

“One thing is obvious is that they have quality on the pitch. Any difficult period they have you have to be confident Rafa will turn it round. They have a series of games now not against the top six. They have played five of them already.

“I can honestly tell you it’s no different to winning anywhere else. I have very fond memories of this place and I always want them to do well. It’s a big three points away and we are not used to getting too many of those.”

He added: “It is a big victory for us that we had to earn. We probably were up against it, we had more shots against us than we would in a normal game against a team desperate to get a result.

“It was the type of victory we had to work really hard to get a victory. Newcastle could have got a fortunate goal and then the tide might have turned, it was like that.

“We were always scrapping on the break. We had arguably the best opportunities at the end of the game.

“I thought we had a very good goalkeeper today but two outstanding centre-halves. This was a game that was going to have a lot of crosses coming in but they got their heads on it and threw their bodies on it.”