Rafael Benitez: 'We paid for our mistakes'

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has lamented "a couple of mistakes" that saw his side slump to a 3-0 home defeat to Watford this afternoon.

Goals from Will Hughes and Andre Gray either side of an own goal from DeAndre Yedlin handed the Hornets all three points from their trip to the North-East, in the process condemning the Magpies to their fourth straight defeat in the league.

The result saw Benitez's side drop to 13th in the Premier League - just four points above the relegation zone - and speaking after the final whistle, the Spaniard said that his players will now have to 'work as hard as possible' to get moving back up the table.

"We made a couple of mistakes and we paid for that," he told BBC Sport. "They had a couple of runs down their left which were difficult to control. We were pushing in the first half, we were on top for a while but then didn't score.

"We have to realise where we are, what we have and where we want to be. I've said before it is going to be a tough season and we have to keep working as hard as possible."

Next up for Newcastle is a trip to West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday evening.