A buoyant Newcastle have just claimed a Premier League double over Tottenham Hotspur and have also beaten their equally auspicious north London neighbours Arsenal home and away over two competitions these soaring times, so can they follow all that by ripping six points from the grasp of Wolverhampton Wanderers?

I ask it as we welcome the club which incredibly was directly responsible for the birth of the Champions League, firmly back in the sights of United following a recent dramatic revival. Wolves are prowling at the door tonight with United out to repel their threat to blow the house down and build on an impressive run of five successive league victories interspersed with three victorious domestic cup skirmishes.

As United battle for the points required to return to Europe's most elite table having dramatically risen from 12th to fifth to renew hope it is ironic that Wolves should be the latest opposition because they are currently celebrating the 70th anniversary of an epic achievement that brought about the birth of the European Cup as it was initially called. To mark the occasion the club have launched a special edition replica gold shirt currently being snapped up by fans.

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On a chilly December evening in 1954 under the Molineux floodlights which were something of a novelty at the time and in front of an expectant crowd of 55,000 the English champions claimed a monumental 3-2 victory over Honved, one of the greatest club teams of the era.

Hungary's national side, led by stars like Ferenc Puskas and Sandor Kocsis, was considered the best international team ever assembled and had stunned England just a year earlier with a 6-3 demolition at Wembley. At the heart of Hungary's dominance was Honved, a club team of champions boasting many of the country's key players including Puskas and Kocsis. Wolves, meantime, had just won their first English league title in 1953-54 backed by their stars Billy Wright, Bert Williams, Ron Flowers, and Bill Slater.

If Howe has famously declared Newcastle are "not here to be popular, we are here to compete" then Wolves legendary manager of the time Stan Cullis was hardly adverse to pulling all the tricks allowed within the rules. Honved were demoralising Wolves who were 2-0 down at half-time so Cullis ordered the Molineux pitch to be saturated during the interval to slow down the slick, quick passing of the Hungarians and it worked a treat. Wolves stormed to an epic 3-2 victory. Talk about raining on their parade!

British newspapers hailed Wolves as the 'Champions of the World' but it was the response from Gabriel Hanot, a journo for the French sports newspaper L'Equipe, that would change the course of football history. Inspired by the Wolves epic Hanot and his colleagues at L'Equipe accelerated their campaign for a European club tournament and, just months later, the European Cup was born.

Truth is without Wolves' famous intervention United would never had won the European Fairs Cup 15 years later in 1969, their greatest and latest triumph. So let us and the rest of football thank them on the 70th anniversary of their greatest result - and then let Newcastle bury them tonight.

A glance at the all important table tells us that Wolves are struggling amid a furious relegation battle but they have changed manager and that usually signals an uplift in hope and belief. Indeed immediately after appointing Vitor Pereira the Old Gold were unbeaten having claimed seven points from nine before coming up against the PL's shock team Forest and getting coshed. However their best player Matheus Cunha, top scorer with 10 goals, is back after serving a two-game ban.

Can United actually make the Champions League never mind the lower European competitions? I know a lot of folk will talk of the likes of Man City and Aston Villa closing in over the long haul to the finish line but then, whatever some may say, I can still see Forest despite their stupendous run of results tapering off while Chelsea are levelling out after a super charge. So why not?

Is this Cloughie Mark Two? Forest had in their first 20 matches only beaten two teams in the top half - admittedly one a staggering victory at Liverpool - and they are now entering a really difficult run of games. We shall see. We beat Forest 3-1 at their place and they are due up here next month!

They play Liverpool tonight and then face a string of games against Bournemouth (a), Brighton (h), Fulham (a), Newcastle (a), Arsenal (h), Man City (h), Man United (h), and Aston Villa (a). The only oasis in that desert are the matches against Southampton home and Ipswich away.

What is reassuring to us all is that United should be back to their vibrant best tonight having rested the bulk of their starters against Bromley in the FA Cup. Their first choice players are a different class - high0octane performers of the highest quality - but if the cup-tie highlighted anything it is that, should Champions League football be claimed as we all pray, Newcastle will have to strengthen their squad in the summer months.

They didn't flush out their player roster two years ago and it cost them over a season playing on four fronts and current back-up men like Miggy Almiron, Sean Longstaff, Lloyd Kelly and Harvey Barnes fell well short of new standards against Bromley while Will Osuna, who scored a sensational goal to give us a fascinating glimpse of encouraging promise, also underlined that the gush of excitement apart overall he is a raw talent not yet ready for the subtlety, power and physicality of the PL over 90 minutes.

However right now what we have got on the team sheet at kick off when all are fit is of the highest class. Let us enjoy them and let the power brokers work some magic in the transfer market, financial fair play restrictions or not.