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Magpies showed 'great courage and desire', says Ritchie
Written by Tom Easterby
Matt Ritchie felt Newcastle United deserved at least a point after they showed “great courage and great desire” at Wembley on Wednesday night.
Harry Kane’s second half strike saw the Magpies suffer a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in their penultimate game of the season.
But the scoreline didn’t tell the full story, with United controlling the contest for large spells and carving out a host of opportunities against Mauricio Pochettino’s men.
And Ritchie says it is important for his team to take the positives from their midweek clash in the capital as they look to end the season on a high against Chelsea on Sunday.
“I thought, first half, we were really good – we stayed in the game, created chances and probably should’ve taken a couple, but it wasn’t to be,” he told nufc.co.uk.
“In the second half, we conceded and it’s always going to be difficult, conceding away from home to Tottenham at Wembley. I thought we showed great courage and great desire to try and get back in the game, but it wasn’t quite to be.
“But in the first half, we had the better chances and were frustrated coming in at 0-0, really. They had a lot of the ball but we had good chances, and that was our gameplan – sit in, soak up the pressure and try and catch them on the break, and I think we did that a few times.
“On another day, we take our chances and go 1-0 or 2-0 up. But there are a lot of positives, and now we need to continue and take those positive into the last game of the season.”
United welcome Chelsea to St. James’ Park on Sunday afternoon (3pm kick-off) to bring the curtain down on 2017/18.
And winger Ritchie feels his side can be encouraged by their display on their first visit to the ‘new’ Wembley as they prepare for the weekend’s clash with Antonio Conte’s Blues.
“We always believe we can create chances. I think the desire we showed to defend our box and put pressure on them was really good, and hopefully we can continue that into the last game of the season, because we want to win it,” he said.
“We’ve not got the results we wanted of late, but hopefully we can get three points on Sunday and hopefully finish in the top ten.”
"In the second half, we conceded and it’s always going to be difficult, conceding away from home to Tottenham at Wembley. I thought we showed great courage and great desire to try and get back in the game, but it wasn’t quite to be."