Town boss Mick McCarthy tipped Newcastle for the Championship title after the table-topping Magpies had beaten the Blues 3-0 at St James’ Park.
"We were beaten by the better team, beaten by the champions if anything,” McCarthy said. "If I see a better team than that this year I’ll be surprised.
"I’ve just spoken to the players and that was one of those days. Having given the goal away, there wasn’t a lot really we could do about it. We were trying everything to stop them and get a foothold in the game.
"To be fair, the one pleasing thing was that we kept it at 1-0 for 70 minutes. We gave the ball away from a throw-in that we had for their second goal but nevertheless the finish was fabulous.
"All three finishes were fabulous and I wonder if we’d have had those chances or anybody else, would they have scored them, I don’t know. They were better than us, they are better than us, they’ll be champions in my view.”
McCarthy was reminded that he warned against allowing Newcastle, who scored their first goal in the opening minute, make a strong start at his pre-match press conference.
"I was the prophet of doom, wasn’t I?” he reflected. "I said I didn’t want to let them have the ball, we tried to press, we didn’t really do it particularly well, we didn’t get in a tackle.
"Maybe if somebody could have put in a tackle and put somebody on their arse and upset the crowd and got them going, but we didn’t, we didn’t get anywhere near them.
"I don’t know how many passes they had before it ended up in our net. It was difficult to stop.”
McCarthy made changes of system and personnel as the game progressed but to no avail.
"Yes, none of it worked,” the Town boss added ruefully. "And the players, they’re all knackered, they’ve all tried their nuts off, they’ve worked really, really hard and done it like they do every week for me, put a shift in.
"I can’t really say any more, they are a very good team, they played very well, they deserved to win and we got what we deserved, which was nothing.”
Was it any consolation that for a spell in second half Town made it difficult for Newcastle?
"I think we got in their half a couple of times,” McCarthy joked. "It’s not a consolation. I know my lads have worked really hard and having kept it to 1-0 in the first half, the second half at 70 minutes the crowd’s just getting a little bit fractious, they’ve passed a few balls out.
"Everybody knows that if you can keep it at that, you might get a corner and nick one, a freekick, you catch them on the break, there’s a mistake.
"Unfortunately that’s the disappointing thing, that we didn’t keep it at that and take it a bit longer, and that we had the ball [ahead of the goal], we gave it away it was our throw-in.”
Did Town miss Cole Skuse, a regular in central midfield throughout his time at Portman Road, who missed out with a toe injury.
"Whether that would have had such a bearing on it playing against them, I don’t know,” the Blues boss continued.
"He’s been an ever-present Skusey, so you know what I think of him and how important he is to the team.
"It’s never nice to leave a player of his importance to a team, but I’m just hoping he’ll be fit for Saturday.”
Regarding Leon Best’s half-time withdrawal, McCarthy said that it was tactical rather than down to an injury: "He dislocated his finger, he had it put back in. But no, I wanted Didzy on the pitch and I wasn’t going to have the two of them on the pitch.
"I didn’t think I was going lose anything, I was only going to gain something by getting Didzy 45 minutes. I thought he did all right and he’ll be a lot better for playing 45 minutes in the first team.”
Jonas Knudsen was also replaced at the break and that was down to an injury, McCarthy confirmed: "Jonas couldn’t stand up straight, he ricked his back, so he was in real pain because he is a tough lad, he couldn’t carry on.”
McCarthy was pleased with Josh Emmanuel, who took over in the unfamiliar left-back role: "Josh did fine, he was all right. He’s never going to be spraying the ball about from that position, he doesn’t particularly do that from the right-back slot, so difficult on his left. But he defended well, I thought he did really well. Josh is fine.”
Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez was delighted to see his side claim their fifth successive win.
"I would say it was another good win because it’s not easy to win in this competition,” he said.
"I thought we played really well in the first half, we had a lot of chances, we could have scored more goals but we didn’t do it, so we had to work hard in the second half when they were pushing and pressing high and it was not easy to pass the ball in the way we wanted to until we scored the second goal.
"After the second goal we had even more control and it easy at the end because you can see the result, but it was difficult during the game, especially the second half.”