Win was reward for keeping our heads, says Ayoze

Matt Ritchie’s second half curler won it for the hosts, but the game’s major talking point came on the half hour, when Ritchie’s converted penalty was chalked off by referee Keith Stroud.

The game was held up for almost four minutes while the incident was discussed by the officials, with United’s players, management and supporters bemused as their seemingly legitimate opener was disallowed.

But Rafa Benitez’s side continued to apply the pressure after the break, and they eventually found a way through thanks to Ritchie’s 68^th-minute winner.

And Perez believes the Magpies’ reaction to being denied that first half goal shows the strength of their mentality and resolve.

“I haven’t seen that before. I still don’t know what happened,” he told nufc.co.uk. “The linesman was telling me something about a foul when the ball was stopped.

“This kind of thing shouldn’t happen, but even with this kind of thing, the team showed that we are a team, we want to stay at the top and we want promotion.

“It was quite hard, because you absolutely know that it’s a wrong decision. After those five minutes you’re still thinking about it, because it was an important goal for us at an important time in the first half.

“You have to keep your head right. Sometimes it’s hard, and this kind of decision can make a difference, but this time the team proved that we want to win every game and stay at the top.

“After that, everyone could see how the team reacted. We wanted to go for the game with even more desire. It was a key moment, but we won, and that’s the most important thing.”

Ritchie’s decisive strike means United have now recorded back-to-back home victories in the Sky Bet Championship, and Perez says going into Saturday’s game at Sheffield Wednesday on the back on two wins is the ideal scenario as the hectic run-in continues.

“It was a great finish. We needed that – something individual, something different,” said the 23-year-old. “After I missed my chance, Ritchie scored and it was an important goal that can give us a lot at the end of the season.

“They were playing with five at the back, and we knew that we had to have the ball, pass it, find some spaces and get a hold. The first goal was always going to be the most important one, and we were trying to find it as soon as possible.

“We did find it in the second half, and we kept really solid which is very important."

He added: “(Sheffield Wednesday) will be a tough game, but we have to be confident, because after these two games, we have won both.

“We haven’t been as good as we wished at home – the form at home hasn’t been good at all – but we can say we won two matches against teams fighting relegation, which sometimes is really hard. We have to realise where we are, and now go to Sheffield to get three points.”