Rafa Benitez defends Florian Lejeune after Newcastle's summer signing costs them three points against Southampton

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free

Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez defended Florian Lejeune after the French centre-back conceded a second-half penalty that allowed Southampton to snatch a 2-2 draw.

Lejeune was making just his second Premier League appearance for the club after signing from Spanish side Eibar in the summer, but was guilty of needlessly bringing down Shane Long in the box to concede a late penalty kick.

Manolo Gabbiadini smashed home from the spot to deny Newcastle what would have been an incredibly impressive victory at St Mary’s.

After the match, Benitez accepted that Lejeune had made an error to concede the penalty but defended the 26-year-old, who was unlucky not to score a last-gasp winner when his header from inside the box was heroically cleared off the line by Southampton substitute Steven Davis.

“I have not yet seen the replay but from the bench it looks as though it was a penalty,” Benitez conceded.

“Obviously he conceded the penalty that but then afterwards he was almost the hero with the header — that is football.

“He has not played since the opening game against Tottenham and he has been working very hard. During the international break he has been training with the team and I am happy because he is a good player who gives us more options at centre-back.”

Benitez added that he was “pleased overall” with Newcastle’s performance, but admitted he was sorry his side could not produce a win for the travelling fans, who had travelled over 300 miles late on a Sunday afternoon to cheer on their team.

“My big disappointment was for the fans,” he added. “They travelled a very long way to follow the team and it was a pity because we couldn't get three points so they could go back happy.

“It was difficult but at least we got a point. We can be better and hopefully we will be better but we have to defend better. But overall it was a great performance and it was a great game for everybody to watch.”

His Southampton counterpart Mauricio Pellegrino was rather less pleased with the outcome of the match, urging his team to improve over the coming weeks.

Southampton next face winnable matches against West Brom, Brighton and Burnley, before their fixture list takes a turn for the worse.

“Okay we won the point, but we conceded a soft goal too quickly after equalising and we have to be better organised,” Pellegrino said. “My feeling today was that we never controlled the game totally and next week our organisation has to be better.”