RAFAEL BENITEZ was delighted to see his tactical tinkering rewarded as Newcastle United ended their Monday-night jinx with a 2-1 win at Burnley.

The Magpies ended a run of ten successive Monday-night defeats as they pulled four points clear of the relegation zone with their third win in a row.

Ben Mee’s own goal gave Newcastle an ideal start, with Ciaran Clark doubling the visitors’ lead midway through the first half. Sam Vokes scored for Burnley at the end of the first half, but despite the Clarets hurling a host of long balls into the box in the second period, Newcastle’s remodelled defence held firm.

Benitez switched to a five-man defence in an attempt to negate Burnley’s aerial threat, and his ploy worked superbly as his side repelled a series of second-half raids. An injury to Paul Dummett forced the Magpies manager’s hand somewhat, but his decision to remodel his backline proved an inspired piece of judgement.

“We knew it could be a game like that, and the three centre-halves did a great job,” said Benitez, whose side have climbed to 13th position in the table. “I will keep to myself whether I would have done it anyway (had Dummett not been injured), but it was clear that we needed to deal with their two centre-forwards, and to do that, we needed to change something. I thought the players did really well.”

Having been rooted to the foot of the table after losing at home to Brighton, Newcastle have turned their season around with a run of ten points from four matches.

A goalless draw at Southampton started the sequence, before wins over Watford, Bournemouth and now Burnley eradicated the pressure that had been building on Tyneside.

Benitez remained level-headed when things were going against his side at the start of the season, and his steadfast approach has helped his squad turn things around.

While less experienced managers might have panicked, Benitez has stuck to his methods and principles, and his faith in his players has been rewarded.

“We knew that playing five teams out of the top six could be very difficult, so we needed to manage things well,” he said. “We couldn’t get results, but we managed things well to stay in the games.

“After that, I said that playing against teams that are closer to us in terms of quality, we could do well and get points. That is the case now. We are playing with more confidence against teams that while they have good players, we can compete with them and get these points.”

That confidence was evident in the quality of Newcastle’s counter-attacking play, with a series of swift raids troubling a Burnley defence that was one of the most reliable in the Premier League last season.

“Football depends on the emotion,” said Benitez. “When you are doing well and everyone is excited, sometimes you try to do things that normally you don’t try, and then you do well. Now we have a good situation in terms of winnings and doing things that we want to do. We wanted to do some specific things in this game, and we did them and did them well.”

The Newcastle boss was able to laugh off a remarkable miss from Matt Ritchie that will surely make its way on to the next compilation of Premier League bloopers.

Joe Hart deflected DeAndre Yedlin’s shot into Ritchie’s path at the start of the second half, but despite having an open goal at his mercy two yards out, the Scotsman somehow slashed a shot into the side-netting.

“I need to see the replay,” said Benitez. “We were laughing about it when we came off the pitch because he cannot believe what happened. I will have to check, but in the end we won and he did a great job. He missed the chance, but he was playing in a position that is not his position and he did a great job. I have to congratulate everyone.”

Ritchie was relieved his miss did not prove costly, and admits even he is not really sure how the ball did not end up in the net.

“I was probably celebrating before I put it in,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t make Premier League Misses. I was delighted at the end when the whistle went. It was a huge relief.”