PINCH yourself – this isn’t a dream. Wanderers really are as good as they look.

With form that has fans dusting off their passports and football bordering on the sublime, you sometimes wonder whether we’re all going to wake up in a moment, slouched in a seat, and watching the Whites labour in a pre-season friendly in Rochdale.

This win – the club’s biggest at home since entering the Premier League – was their 1,000th in the top flight and just as emphatic as their first, a 6-2 triumph over Everton some 122 years ago.

And while Owen Coyle, Kevin Davies et al are keeping a lid on their enthusiasm, and sensibly so, the rest of us are more than entitled to get a little bit excited by it all.

While Manchester City’s win at Fulham meant Wanderers did not occupy a Champions League spot after the weekend, the fact they lead the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Everton after 14 games is a magnificent testament to the rebuilding work done by Coyle since his arrival in January.

And all this has been achieved without any major change in personnel. The starting line-up on Saturday, for example, had just two different faces from the one beaten by the same scoreline at Villa Park almost a year ago to the day.

But while Wanderers are daring to dream, a return to the Reebok was nothing but a nightmare for former skipper Kevin Nolan.

Dispossessing Paul Robinson after 56 seconds and curling a shot high and wide was as good as it got for the former captain, who was quickly scouring the pitch for a hole to swallow him up.

Nolan had been afforded an excellent reception before kick-off, but after conceding a needless penalty for handball 18 minutes in, converted by Kevin Davies, the midfielder never recovered.

As the goals racked up against his side, Nolan was reduced to roughing up Johan Elmander in frustration, and in that respect he was not alone.

Wanderers’ reborn Swede was celebrating the birth of his second child this week but looked anything but a man who had endured sleepless nights.

He tormented Fabio Coloccini to the extent that the Argentine defender lashed out with an elbow 15 minutes before the end, leaving referee Howard Webb with no choice but to order him down the tunnel.

Adding two more goals to his tally, and yet more weight to the contract talks that are due to begin on Wednesday, Elmander cannot seem to do any wrong at the moment.

And he finally managed to give his home fans a glimpse of how he has turned into the top flight’s most potent marksman, scoring at the Reebok for the first time since March to take his tally to eight for the season.

For all Newcastle’s crude efforts to stop him – including a blatant barge from Mike Williamson which went completely unpunished – the Swede just kept coming back for more. And it was from his hard work that led to the second goal of the afternoon.

Matt Taylor rattled the crossbar with a curling free-kick but while Coloccini and Danny Simpson pondered which one of them was going to clear the ball, Elmander nipped in to prod the ball through to Chung-Yong Lee, who looked offside but did not let that prevent him from lashing the ball past Tim Krul.

Five minutes after the restart, it was Elmander’s turn to profit from some excellent build-up play. Stuart Holden found Davies, who cleverly put the ball through Jose Enrique’s legs for his strike partner to dance round the keeper and score.

For a very brief moment, Newcastle threatened to make the game a contest. Holden’s challenge on the edge of the box inadvertently put through Andy Carroll – perhaps the only visiting player to emerge with any credit from the game – and the newly-capped England international made sure Jussi Jaaskelainen had yet another clean sheet taken from his grasp.

There were a few nervous moments as crosses flashed across the Wanderers box, but Elmander took it upon himself to put the game to bed, out-muscling Coloccini 40 yards out before stroking the ball past Krul for the fourth.

Maybe that embarrassment was still in the defender’s mind when he lashed out with his elbow a few moments later.

Facing 10 men, the fans demanded a fifth goal. But they were forced to wait until the bitter end, when Davies was barged by Enrique inside the area before picking himself up to convert the resultant penalty.

“Nolan, Nolan, what’s the score?” sang the boisterous Wanderers fans, as if he needed any reminding whatsoever.

It was a game that will stick in the memory just as much as the last time the Whites hit five in the league, against Leicester City on their first game back in the big time.

Nolan scored twice that day at Filbert Street in a performance ranked among the very best Wanderers have delivered in their decade-long spell in the Premier League.

Now there is another one for the collection.