Newcastle United striker Dwight Gayle has said that the club's win over Manchester United last weekend has "lifted the place".

Matt Richie scored the only goal of the game on Sunday as the Magpies, who were in the relegation zone ahead of the fixture, moved into 13th place in the Premier League table.

Englishman Gayle has said that Rafael Benitez's team, who now face two weeks without a game, go into the break in high spirits.

"It would have been a tough fortnight if we hadn't have won. It's lifted the place," the 27-year-old told the Newcastle Chronicle. "Going into the next two weeks we'd have been in the relegation zone and we'd be a bit upset.

"Now we have those three points we come out of it. At the same time we know we have a massive 11 games left and we know we need to pick up more points because it is so tight down there.

"The fans were happy with me when I came off [against United] and I was pleased with the ovation. The fans actually set us off. In the first few minutes, we made a few blocks and pressed them into making mistakes.The fans got right behind us and pushed us really hard."

Newcastle's two-week break is followed by a game against Bournemouth on February 24.