Ciaran praises Magpies' 'fight'

The Magpies drew 2-2 at home to Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday, with Republic of Ireland centre back Clark scoring an unfortunate late own goal as the R’s pegged United back.

Three days later, though, Rafa Benitez’s side silenced the Rams at a sold-out St. James’ Park thanks to a deflected Matt Ritchie drive, with Clark outstanding in a resolute defensive display from the hosts.

And the 27-year-old told nufc.co.uk that his team’s “fight” came to the fore, and ensured they ground out the weekend victory over Steve McClaren’s men.

“It was a big game during the week, and we wanted to get the win. Coming so close and being so unfortunate at the end was obviously really disappointing going into the dressing room,” explained Clark. “But it was a quick turnaround – we knew we had a game a couple of days later and we knew we wanted to put it right. Luckily we did today.

“We wanted that, we wanted the clean sheet and we want to do that in as many games as we can. To do that after the game on Wednesday was massive for us, and it’s a credit to the whole team.

“Throughout the whole team, we all showed real effort and real fight today. It was tough, especially in the last 15 or 20 minutes, but we managed to hold on to the win and we’re all really pleased with that.”

Derby came close to a leveller as they poured forward in added time, but DeAndre Yedlin’s superb goal-line clearance denied Darren Bent at the death.

It would have been harsh on the Magpies, and Clark reckons the margin of Newcastle’s victory could have been greater.

“I think throughout the game we were fairly well organised, and we limited their chances. There was one scare at the end, and DeAndre did well to clear it off the line and we got rid of it, held on and we’re happy with the three points,” he said.

“We had a few chances, especially in the first half. We wanted to go out there at the start of the game and put them on the back foot and make it hard for them, which we did.

“Matty did well with the strike – it took a deflection and went in, but it doesn’t matter how it goes in. We’ll take those all day. We showed real fight today, and hopefully we can continue showing that.

“I think he’s scored a few deflections already this season, but we really don’t mind how they go in. We created chances, and that’s the main thing, and we limited Derby to very few today. It was a good performance.”