Theo Walcott’s second half strike won it for the hosts at Goodison Park, clinching the points after a scrappy encounter which, in truth, could have gone either way.

The result means Rafa Benítez’s 100th game in charge of the Magpies ended in defeat, but despite the result American full back Yedlin felt that his side deserved more from their trip to Merseyside.

“I thought we deserved more, but that’s football sometimes – you have to take it and move on,” he told nufc.co.uk.

“I don’t necessarily think that the display was any worse or anything than the other games we’ve had – I think it was one of those days where it wasn’t our day. I think if the luck had maybe fallen our way, it could have been a different result and we could have walked away with three points.

“It’s just one of those days, but we’re proud of the boys for the effort. That’s the one thing that nobody can say – that we don’t put in the effort – so we’re proud of everybody for that and we’ll move on to the next game.”

He added: “I think for the most part we defended well. I think at times we gave up possession when we could have kept the ball, but it’s a tough place to come and play.

“So credit to them – thought they put pretty good pressure on us and obviously they scored and we didn’t, so that was the difference in the game.

“But I don’t think it’s a performance we need to get too down about. We definitely had our chances and our opportunities, and it’s just about finishing those off, defending a bit better and moving on to the next game.”

United have an opportunity to return to winning ways within the week, when West Bromwich Albion arrive at St. James’ Park on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off).

“We know what position we’re in now and we want to keep shooting higher so the disappointing thing is that we weren’t able to move up,” he said.

“But other than that, there’s more opportunities so were going to do the best we can in the next couple for games to try and move up the table.”