Christian Atsu has revealed the encouraging words he received from Matt Ritchie the player he took his place in Newcastle United starting XI.

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Manager Rafa Benitez decided to rest Ritchie ahead of the international break and only informed Atsu he was starting 90 minutes before kick-off time.

But the Ghana international did not disappoint and ended up scoring a classy goal which gave the Magpies a 1-0 win over Rotherham.

Atsu revealed Ritchie had predicted he was going to score on the afternoon.

''The lads are great, and especially Matt Ritchie,'' said Atsu.

''We play the same position. Any time he is going to the game, I tell him 'you are going to score'.

''Today, when I was going to the game, he said 'you have to score'.

''You can see we are supporting each other and also the fans are great supporters. I could hear them supporting throughout the game.''

source:ghanasoccernet.com