Newcastle United winger Matt Ritchie hailed their team spirit for victory over Watford.

Substitute Ayoze Pérez was the matchwinner, nodding in Ki Sung-yueng's free kick with 25 minutes remaining to secure a welcome first three points of the 2018/19 Premier League campaign.

“I think you could see from the lads on the pitch that there was a desire to get the points today," he told nufc.co.uk. “Yes, in the first half we probably rode our luck a little bit and they probably had the better of the chances, but certainly in the second half I thought we were strong – we were resilient.

“They had some good chances again on the counter attack, but I think once we got the goal we never really looked back. You could see the mentality of the lads, and that's what we need week-in, week-out."