THE prospect of facing Manchester United at Old Trafford next week is piling extra pressure on Wanderers as they look to add to their points haul at the Reebok on Saturday.
In a rare departure from the familiar "one game at a time" philosophy, Sam Allardyce admitted that the big local derby was on his mind as he prepared his team to face Newcastle.
He conceded: "It is difficult to see us getting a positive result at Manchester United, so that heaps more importance on the Newcastle game."
The manager's admission is a clear acknowldgement of the inherent problems Wanderers face as they try to compete in the top flight and a recognition that the pressures are mounting as they attempt to sustain their sparkling early season form.
The players themselves are doubly determined not to let successive home defeats by Southampton and Sunderland undermine their confidence and the message from the dressing room is a positive "We will bounce back!"
But Allardyce accepts they face a tough challenge as they go into the next phase of their Premiership campaign.
"Hopefully we'll come across Manchester United when we've beaten Newcastle," he says, "but beating them will be very difficult.
"One, they are a good side now; and two, we'll have a little edginess among the supporters because we've lost our last two home games. And that edginess can be passed on to the players quite easily. We saw that at the highest level with the England-Greece game. The edginess transmitted to the players and they lost their edge and didn't perform to the level we know they are capable of.
"In the end they got what we need ... a bit of luck and a bit of quality".
Wanderers go into the game still holding fifth place in the table but without a Premiership win since they beat Liverpool on August 27 to claim the record breaking hat-trick of triumphs that stunned the football world. Allardyce is realistic enough to know they will not keep pace with the leading lights of the division but he hopes they can keep a brake on the slide down the table when it comes.
He says: "We've got to stay out of the bottom half of the table as long as we possibly can. The longer we are out of it, the less pressure is on us; the less the pressure, the better we can perform; and the better we perform, the more positive results we will get."
Newcastle - the only team to beat Manchester United in the Premiership this season - come to the Reebok with a reputation for inconsistency but Allardyce believes Bobby Robson is starting to get them going in the right direction.
He reckons: "He's got the balance and shape of the team he wanted. Craig Bellamy shows a lot of movement and pace and little darting runs up front; Alan Shearer is getting back into the fold and the service coming from wide with Solano and Robert is what he (Robson) has been searching for.
"The job for us is to stop the service to Shearer and Bellamy as much as we possibly can then we have to get at their back four and test them and the keeper and go all out to get the win that is very important to us - sensibly."
Nicky Southall, impressive in the Worthington Cup win against Nottingham Forest on Monday, is tipped to keep his place tomorrow as Per Frandsen struggles to overcome an ankle injury.
Squad: Jaaskelainen, Barness, Whitlow, Bergsson, Hendry, Charlton, Johnson, Hansen, Southall, Warhurst, Nolan, Gardner, Wallace, Ricketts, Holdsworth, N'Gotty.
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