Jamaal Lascelles was Newcastle’s captain marvel for the second time in as many weeks as his second-half winner saw his side beat Stoke 2-1 and hit the heady heights of fourth place.

It was the Magpies’ third straight league win — the first time the club has recorded three back-to-back victories in the league since November 2014.

But his boss Rafa Benitez was not getting carried away. “I haven’t seen the table and I don’t want to see the table, believe me. I want to take it one game at a time and I want the fans to enjoy it and I want the players to enjoy it but we have to make sure at the next training session we start improving things and enjoying things.”

More than anything he was pleased with the spirit showed by his team.

“The main thing is the togetherness, work rate, character and connection with the fans,” he said.

“I want players who want to fight and defend the black-and-white shirt. The fans appreciate that and for us to do that every week and for the captain to lead by example is really good.”

Christian Atsu, restored to the side on the left wing, grabbed the opener after 19 minutes, latching on to Matt Ritchie’s curling cross from the right to volley home past Jack Butland at the near post.

The home side should then have put the game beyond reach but but Joselu, signed from Stoke in the summer missed a hat trick of chances.

Almost inevitably, Stoke took advantage of his profligacy and Xherdan Shaqiri planted a low 20-yard shot beyond Rob Elliot and into the bottom corner. Moments later they were nearly ahead but Elliot was equal to Mame Biram Diouf’s header.

From that point the home side reasserted control. They felt they should have had a penalty when Atsu seemed to have been tripped by Kurt Zouma, but Laschelles was on hand to head home a Matt Ritchie corner in the 68th minute to seal the win.

Defeat leaves Stoke one point off the bottom three but their manager Mark Hughes was not unduly worried.

“We’ve had a difficult start to the season,” he said. “But our performances have been good and it will pan out towards October when the fixtures get easier on paper.