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Rafa Benitez says he was always confident his Newcastle United players would deliver this season.

The first two matches of United’s Sky Bet Championship campaign resulted in defeats against Fulham and Huddersfield Town.

Back then, the recently-relegated Magpies were on the end of some negative headlines while some rival fans revelled in their early season struggle.

Benitez, speaking after the 6-0 win over Queens Park Rangers, said: “I don’t think we played well in the first two games but we weren’t as bad as people said.

“They said we deserved to lose, I don’t think so. But we can’t change that.

“We had a difficult game away at Bristol and it showed sometimes you can win without playing really well.

“At QPR we had both things, we played well and got the result.

“Maybe against Fulham or Huddersfield we could have got a draw and it would have been totally different.

“You have to do things well, look forward and try to improve your team.”

Newcastle now face a Wolverhampton Wanderers side that were stuffed 4-0 at home to Barnsley in midweek.

Victory over Wolves could see Newcastle take the top spot in the Championship table if Huddersfield fail to beat QPR.