Rafa Benitez says Newcastle paid for their mistakes against Watford

Rafa Benitez says Newcastle paid for their mistakes against Watford as they fell to a 3-0 defeat in the Premier League on Saturday.

The Magpies have now lost their last four league matches with only one goal scored and were beaten by an impressive Watford side, with strikes from Will Hughes, Andre Gray and a DeAndre Yedlin own goal helping them to victory.

Following the defeat, Benitez said his side must work harder to prevent the kinds of mistakes they made at St James' Park, and admitted that they lost control of the game.

"It was a classic game of the Premier League. You make mistakes and you pay for that," he told Sky Sports.

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"We can work harder, work better and that's it. We have to realise that this is the Premier League and you have to be strong as a unit... We have to stick together like we did in a lot of games and improve that.

"It was important [the second goal]. We knew we had made a mistake but we were on top of them in the first half and then when we conceded the second goal, it was quite different.

"You have to take more risks in the second half. We were a little bit more open and then we lose the control. Especially after the third goal, we lost control of the game."

Next up for Newcastle is West Brom - who sacked manager Tony Pulis last week - and Benitez says his side will try and right some of their wrongs at The Hawthorns.

"I was telling them that we have to realise where we are and what we have to do for the future. We still have a few points to go to get 20 points in the first half of the season and we have to keep working harder," he added.

"I see West Brom as the next challenge and we will try to put things right in this game. Coming back from the Championship, every game will be tougher so it will be difficult for us. Not just the next one, that will be the most difficult for now, and then after, we have a lot of them."