Jonjo Shelvey and Ayoze Pérez were on target as United won 2-1 at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium, with Jamie Vardy’s late effort for the Foxes ultimately amounting to little more than a consolation.
Newcastle were as high as sixth in the Premier League in mid-October, but by the time they headed to West Ham United in their final fixture before Christmas, Rafa Benítez’s side had dropped into the relegation mire.
Since then, they have won six times in 14 top-flight outings to move to within touching distance of safety, climbing above both Watford and AFC Bournemouth by virtue of their latest success.
Though quick to exercise a word of caution as he spoke to nufc.co.uk after the full-time whistle, Ritchie insisted that the Magpies should head into the final six games of the campaign with a “positive mentality” after overcoming a challenging winter results-wise.
“We need to get to 40 points – we’re not safe yet. We need to perform well, and with good performances – as you’ve seen – come results,” he said. “We’re on a fantastic run at the moment and I think it’s gone under the radar a little bit – I think we’ve only been beaten by (Manchester) City twice and Liverpool in our last 13 or 14 games. I think we’ve been really solid and scored at good times, and today we did the same thing.
“Hopefully we can continue to win games, and now – instead of looking over our shoulder as everyone in the bottom half has been doing for the last six months or so – we can hopefully start trying to catch one or two in front of us. That’ll be the aim now because we want to have a positive mentality about the group, but first things first – we need to keep performing at a high level, and hopefully with that, points will come.
“I don’t think a lot has changed, really. I think we’ve been a bit more clinical in front of goal, but when you look at the little blip we had, we didn’t really get absolutely dominated by anyone – there was only one goal in a lot of the games and at the start of the season it was similar. The Premier League is so tight. When you look at our season throughout, and if you really analyse it, our first ten or 11 games we did really well and we were on the right side of 1-0s. And then it might have been Bournemouth at home where we were on the wrong end of a 1-0 and we went on a little bit of a blip from there, getting beat by one or dropping points from leading positions. But as I say, over the last 14 games we’ve really kicked on and it’s through no fluke – it’s through hard work, dedication and attention to detail.”
Victory was Newcastle’s first at the King Power Stadium since the Foxes moved from Filbert Street 15 years ago, and Ritchie praised the Magpies for being quick to set about their task.
“I think the main thing was to stay in the game early, because we knew they were going to be pushing,” he said. “They’re a threat in behind and they’ve got good players. We knew it was going to be a tough game and we were ready for it.
“We obviously scored on the counter – a really good goal – and in the second half we were hanging on a little bit but then we got the second goal and we were frustrated, really, to concede one, because we were in control of the situation even though we didn’t have the ball. Conceding set up a nervy ten minutes at the end, but I think we did really well to see it out.”
