Huddersfield Town’s surprise defeat at Nottingham Forest means that United remain well-placed for an immediate return to the Premier League, but – for the most part – they were second-best at Hillsborough.

Tom Lees opened the scoring for Wednesday just shy of the hour-mark, guiding home Ross Wallace’s free-kick from the right.

Steven Fletcher headed in Daniel Pudil’s searching throw to put the Owls firmly in the ascendancy, before Jonjo Shelvey pulled one back for Newcastle late on.

The Magpies would have been fortunate to escape with a point, however, and Gouffran has called for a marked improvement ahead of Leeds United’s visit to St. James’ Park on Good Friday.

“I think we have to play much better. It was very disappointing,” he told nufc.co.uk. “We have to improve, we have to try not to concede silly goals, and we have to stay strong.

“We have to keep going, we need to work, and we need to try and beat Leeds on Friday. It is the kind of game we like to play. A lot of people will be watching, we know it will be important and we have to win it.

“We are still in a good position, but we need more wins to be sure of getting promoted.”

United’s cause was not helped by the loss of leading goalscorer Dwight Gayle, who was forced to leave the field due to injury just 30 minutes into the clash.

Gouffran insisted there were no excuses for the Magpies’ overall showing, however, and acknowledged that Shelvey’s 88th-minute strike arrived a little too late in the day.

“(Gayle’s injury) isn’t the best, but it is not an excuse – we have to play better,” he said. “I think we started the game quite well – maybe the first ten to 15 minutes we were good – but after that, we started to make some mistakes, and they scored twice.

“Yes, the goal maybe came too late. After that, it was hard to score another one. Now, we have to keep going and push to win the game on Friday.”