ALBION boss Graham Potter has admitted that the speed at which Newcastle scored their goals was a “body blow” during the defeat at St James’ Park.

Newcastle took the game by the scruff of the neck inside three devastating minutes as Ryan Fraser netted the first goal in the 11th minute before Fabian Schar doubled the lead in the 14th minute.

After the game, Potter said: “To find ourselves 2-0 down, at the speed that we did, was a bit of a body blow.

“We suffered from a bad goal and then a set play, and it came from nowhere really given we started the game the better team.

“We kept going but it’s hard when you’re 2-0 down all of a sudden. Over the course of the game, I thought we were the better team, but the better team really is the one who scores the most goals, and that was Newcastle today.”

“We stepped up a gear in the second half, even though I didn’t think we were poor in the first half, it was just the scoreline went against us.

“We had some good chances, good opportunities, and there was plenty to be pleased with.”

Despite the result, Potter does believe that the team never stopped trying to get a result from the match.

He said: “You could see the spirit of the team was there, the players keep going until the end and we just ran out of time. We need to learn from the pain of the defeat, we need to try and get better, but there were lots of things that were positive.

“It was a step forward in terms of our performance level but obviously we’re disappointed with the result.”