The win puts us four points ahead of nearest rivals West Brom. The Baggies could only manage a draw against Derby last night as the Rams snatched a late goal to draw their home match. We’ve built up a sizebale 10 point cushion with third placed Nottingham Forrest. Newcastle have  two more possible winnable matches before a tougher Christmas run up of matches starting with arch rivals ‘Boro, who incidentally managed to pick up their first win since Strachan took over and they beat QPR very decisively as well.

Chris Hughton is certainly not resting on his laurels so far telling Sky Sports:

“If I look at what we have managed to achieve so far this season, we are always very keen to point that one out.

“There will be bad times to come, I am sure, but we have shown a lot of resilience and that is the mark of any side which is doing well, that resilience resulting in clean sheets. I am absolutely delighted with that.”

He continued:

“What we do know is we are going to have good days and bad days, and what we have so far shown is a resilience to cope with the bad days and, at times, get something from them.

“There are times when you can’t speak highly enough of the group of lads you have, and that applies today.”

 All I can add is that Newcastle must be brimming with confidence at the moment and they just need to keep our current record going through the holidays to try and maintain our position at the very top.

The success of the team is a double edged sword. Steven Taylor has been alledged earmarked for transfer in January to wayward Everton. Losing any key player in the current team will undoubtedly leave it for worse. Players like Taylor have been instrumental in us  keeping pace with our fight for promotion. But with finances being tighter in the Championship, would Ashley deem it necessary to sell and will Hughton’s growing managerial prestige be enough to sway such decisions from being made?

We are also antcipating French winger, Pancrate debut appearance this weekend and the Chronicle reported Hughton’s thought’s today:

“Pancrate comes into the reckoning for Swansea.

“We only just got his registration through on Monday morning, but he had spent some time before the game getting to the know the lads at the hotel.

“That will do his confidence good because he’s already seen what a close-knit group of lads we’ve got here and he is already becoming part of that.

“We’ve got Saturday’s game with Swansea coming up very quickly, and a lot of games in the next few weeks, so I’m certain he will be involved very soon.

“He’s ready to play now because his all-round fitness was good when he arrived due to the pre-season training he had with Paris St Germain.

“He just needs more match practice, which he’ll get.”

Awesome, looking forward to his debut. Also, let’s hope Gutierrez bags another goal this weekend as the guy has been itching for another.

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