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Newcastle United Fan View: Sitting pretty at the top of the Championship

I have to confess, I didn’t enjoy the match last night, at least not until the 80th minute anyway!

I was incredibly nervous during the build up to the game and those nerves didn’t really settle down until half time after we had started to play some decent football and I thought we might actually get something from the game.

The feeling I had during the match last night was much like how I felt before, during and after most games in the Premier League last season; I didn’t enjoy it – I was more anxious about the result than anything so never really settled down but what a way to win a game! I don’t think I have ever celebrated more in my own front room so apologies so the neighbours as I went a little bit manic in the last 10 minutes and my voice is like gravel this morning!

I suspect the next few matches are going to bring the nerves back, I just hope the players are more immune to it than I am. For the first time last night I understood why so many people have heart attacks at matches, I went close last night watching Sky and I’m only 36!

When I saw the starting line up my heart did sink a little but then Rafa has experimented with starting line ups throughout this season and there is a very good reason why we sit top of the league! Overall I thought we were good though; not everyone had the best of games but the stats from the game show we dominated and deserved the victory. Credit to Daryl Murphy too, he was immense and changed the game completely.

I know Rafa has consistently downplayed the importance of the match last night and indeed the next two matches coming up against Huddersfield Town and Reading, but for me, last night was an incredibly important match.

I said in my last few articles that whilst a win and 3 points against our promotion rivals would be good – in fact I actually said if we beat all 3 then I will go on record to say we are up – the most important thing for me is avoiding defeat – we can’t let our promotion rivals get 3 points on us at this stage of the season. When we went 1-0 down to a dodgy penalty call I was panicking but in fairness to the lads on the pitch, they kept fighting, they kept their heads up and it was a solid team performance – more of the same this Saturday please!

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The next game against Huddersfield is arguably more pivotal in the race for promotion, if not the title. The match on Saturday evening is about securing a (hopefully) unassailable cushion over 3rd place in the Championship – I say unassailable but an 8+ point gap will do wonders for morale and momentum and should be enough to see us over the line.

Right now we have an 8 point gap over Huddersfield but they have a game in hand. Should we lose on Saturday, and Huddersfield win their game in hand, the gap is down to 2 points so once again, we must approach the game against them confidently. It was pleasing to see the interviews with the likes of Diame, Darlow and Rafa after the game last night and all 3 said something along those lines; the message is clear, we must keep winning – keep winning and we are promoted.

It is a refreshing message to hear and one I am actually confident in but for me anyway, I am going to enjoy the win last night and watch that Matt Ritchie pass to Atsu over and over and over again.

We’re Newcastle, we’re top of the league!