Carlo Ancelotti believes Newcastle United are a 'good team' and the Everton manager expected the Magpies' 'good performance' - even if Callum Wilson's penalty 'changed the game'.
Following a flat first half - Newcastle registered the game's first shot on target after the half-hour mark - Wilson won a penalty for his side on 56 minutes.
Despite a lengthy delay, and the best efforts of Everton defender Yerry Mina to put him off, the striker sent goalkeeper Robin Olsen the wrong way from the spot and later doubled the Magpies' advantage with a tap-in at the far post.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the visitors in stoppage time to set up a grandstand finish, but Newcastle held on and Ancelotti was keen to pay tribute to the back-and-whites' performance.
"I think Steve [Bruce] has had the same experience as me. Managers are used to being criticised," he told reporters after Newcastle's 2-1 win.
"Newcastle did its job. It's a good team. I think they played a good game against Wolves with the same style, with the same identity.
"They were defensively strong and tried to do the counter-attack. I think their performance was good - as we expected."
Everton could have returned to the top of the table with a victory at St James' Park, but Ancelotti's side have now suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League for the first time this season.
As was the case in the loss at Southampton last month, Ancelotti believes the 'little details' were what ultimately cost his team on Tyneside.
"I don't think it was a good performance," he added. "But knew it was this kind of game until the penalty. It was a game without a lot of lot of opportunity, without space.
"I think it was important to avoid mistakes, not to give them the opportunity to go ahead, and I think the game changed when we gave them a penalty and a possibility to go ahead with the penalty.
"After that, the game was difficult and complicated. We had a good reaction but it was not good enough. Until the penalty, I understood it was not good but the game, tactically, was played well.
"I knew that we couldn't have a lot of opportunities. I knew we couldn't have a lot of space. But we avoided counter-attacks, we avoided problems.
"After the first goal, the game completely changed. It was exactly the same as what happened last week against Southampton where I think the first 30 minutes were good with good control.
"We were not focused on the little details with the throw-in, we conceded a goal and after that, the game changed. It's there where we missed today - the little details."
