Palace midfielder Hughes: Defeating Newcastle a real team effort

Crystal Palace midfielder Will Hughes was delighted with the entire team after their 2-0 win over Newcastle United.

The London club had to work hard for all three points at home on Wednesday night.

While the Magpies are pushing for a top six finish, Palace eased any lingering relegation fears with this win.

[It was] the collective performance, not in ones and twos," Hughes said about the game.

"It was the whole team defending as a unit, and that's what the gaffer's drilled into us over the six, seven weeks that he's been with us. You can see it on the pitch, it's working.

It's hard to do it for 95, 100 minutes. I think we started really well in the first 30 minutes. We got caught out a couple of times just before half-time, but they've got quality players and a quality team, so they are going to hurt you on occasions, but we kept that to a minimum in the first-half.

It was cagey in the second-half. I think that's natural when you're 1-0 up against a top team. Thankfully, we got the second goal to kill it off.

[There was] relief as well to get a second late on! It kind of takes the stuffing out of them, because when there's one goal in it, any team can score on many occasions, so it was nice to get that late on and just put a bit of a gap between us."