Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has praised his 'hard-working players' for making it back-to-back away wins in their meeting with Stoke City.

An Ayoze Perez strike in the final quarter of the contest at the bet365 Stadium was enough for the Magpies to make it two wins and a draw from their last four matches.

Benitez has been pleased with the attitude shown by his group over the past week or so, but admits that he is still keen to strengthen during the January transfer window, which is now officially open for business.

"I think the players were working very hard over the last few games and after the last result this one we needed to win," he told BBC Sport. "We started the game very well, defended well, we had a couple of problems when they played on the counter-attack but overall we were playing well.

"[Stoke] were working very hard and you could see the team spirit was there for them. For us it's good, for them it's bad, but for both teams you can see the players are working very hard.

"We know we are looking for something that can improve the team in different areas. The players are trying everything and I am pleased with them but if we can improve our squad we will try to."

Benitez has lost just one of his 13 managerial matches against Mark Hughes in the Premier League, winning six of those.