Ayoze Perez believes Newcastle United proved just how far they have come under Rafa Benitez’s management with their promising performance at Southampton.
The Spaniard also insists that some of the Magpies squad have banished the demons from “an absolutely horrendous afternoon” at St Mary’s in April 2016, when United were beaten 3-1 in embarrassing fashion.
That woeful display, which plunged Newcastle further towards relegation, even famously led Jamaal Lascelles to call out some of his team-mates after the match and question their “passion” and “desire”.
However, United ended a miserable run of results at St Mary’s on Sunday by securing a 2-2 draw.
In fact, Newcastle were even left disappointed by that result, given that Isaac Hayden and then Perez twice put the visitors ahead, only for Manolo Gabbiadini to twice equalise.
The Magpies were defensively disciplined for the most part, the errors leading to Southampton’s two goals aside, and also offered a real threat going forward.
And Perez believes this display highlights the progress which has been made in 18 months under Benitez’s tutelage - and how the United dressing room is a far-healthier place than it was two seasons ago.
“We are not happy to be leaving here with just a point, and that is a massive difference from the last time we were here,” Perez, who admitted it was an “unbelievable feeling” to score his first Premier League goal since March 2016, explained.
“You can see the big difference straight away. Some people might say this is a lesser squad because we had a lot of big players that season, but everything about the way we are is different.
“We lost that game [in 2016] and it was an absolutely horrendous afternoon. It was not good at all, but you can feel the difference to how we are now straight away.
“It is a completely different dressing room now. We appreciate where we are, in the Premier League, and we want to look after that.
“We want to work as hard as we can because we know where we have come from.
“Working like that is the only way to make sure what happened before does not happen again.”
Newcastle have now secured back-to-back Premier League draws and host bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace, who scored and won for the first time this season on Saturday, this weekend.
Perez has identified both positives and negatives which United can take from draw with Southampton, believing there to be a greater number of the former than the latter.
“It is a good point, but we are a little bit disappointed because we feel as though we dropped two points too,” Perez added.
“We were well organised, and we know when we have to suffer. We played with a lot of strength.
“We had the lead twice, which is important when you are playing away from home, but they did well to come back into it.
“In the end, maybe we have to be satisfied that we got one point. Now, we just have to look forward to the next one.
“This is the only way to play. We all know what the manager wants us to do, and we have to do it.
“You can see the results you get if you do that. From the ‘keeper to the strikers, we have to work as a team.
“We all work hard and give everything we can – if we do that, we know we are going to have chances.
“We try to do our best when we are on the ball, but we know we have to do the other side of our jobs too. We are enjoying it, and we are working really hard as a team. That is going to be key this season.”