Newcastle United's Steven Taylor has hailed the club's youngsters following their 1-0 defeat of Club Brugge in the Europa League.

The defender said that the youthful side Alan Pardew fielded this evening showed "great character" to grind out a result.

He told ESPN: "I think in the performance from our boys, throughout we showed great character. It was a great result for us and a great win.

"Everyone performed well. Young Shane Ferguson performed great, as did Sammy Ameobi. We see him play like that in training, and he has now produced it on the big stage."

Gabriel Obertan scored the only goal of the game early in the second half to move Newcastle into the top spot in Group D.

He said after the game: "I don't get to play much in the Premier League, so it's good to play in the Europa League and persuade the gaffer that I can hopefully play more games in the league.

"Overall tonight though, it's the win that is the most important thing."

Newcastle have seven points from three games played, giving them a three-point lead over second-placed Bordeaux.