Football managers are forever finding positives in the most unlikely places and Chris Hughton has duly discovered that being in the bottom three can have its benefits.
According to the Newcastle United caretaker manager, the team's fall into the Premier League relegation zone could well serve as a "shock therapy" and "focus players' minds" for the season's closing eight games. "I think there's always a different feel when you're in the bottom three, I think I'm right to say it really does focus your mind," said Hughton whose side arrived there after losing at home to Arsenal last Saturday.
With Newcastle's next two games featuring the visit of Chelsea to St James' Park and a trip to Stoke, escaping it will not be easy. "I've known for a while it would be a tough end to the season," added Hughton whose team stand 18th, two points from safety. "Those players who didn't realise it was going to be a tough end to the season, they certainly realise it now. Being in the bottom three is a sort of shock therapy."
It is understood Hughton, a fine coach but not a manager, does not really want to be in the hot seat but with the club optimistic that Joe Kinnear will be able to return to his office next month following major heart surgery he has, nonetheless, been left to hold the fort. Should the medical tests Kinnear is due to undergo on 6 April – a date Newcastle's manager has dubbed D-Day – prompt cause for concern it is not inconceivable that yet another manager could be hired. But for the moment Newcastle are insisting they have no plans to recruit a firefighter figure. Even so, Kinnear's future remains uncertain, particularly as his current short-term deal expires in June and with doubts surrounding his health he has not signed the club's offer of a two-year contract extension.
There is frustration, too, for Kevin Nolan. The midfielder wants to make up for lost time after enduring one of the most trying months of his career. The 26-year-old was making just his third appearance for the club he joined in a £4m switch from Bolton in January when he was sent off for an ugly challenge on Everton's Victor Anichebe in February, earning himself a three-match ban. As a result, he was left in the stands as the Magpies slipped to successive defeats by his former club and Manchester United and then managed to pick up only a point at Hull.
Nolan returned to action in Saturday's 3–1 home defeat by Arsenal. His enforced lay-off left him struggling for match fitness, but he was glad just to be involved once again, saying: "I have been walking around kicking the cat and headbutting walls. It has been frustrating, really, as I'm at a new club. If you look at it in a positive way, it's given me time to get to know the lads, the staff and Newcastle as a city a bit more. I have got my house sorted, so I will be settled there in a few weeks.
"But I didn't want to be banned and sitting in the stands. I was just delighted to be back out there. At times, I was huffing and puffing, which is always the case when you have missed games. You can work as hard as you like in training but there's nothing that can help you regain match fitness apart from matches. You have to be out there, so it was great to get a game under my belt. There are a few aches and pains, but for me they are good aches and pains because it means I'm playing again."
Nolan's return, as well as that of Habib Beye and Michael Owen from injury, could prove timely for the Magpies whose top-flight status is under real threat for the first time since they returned in 1993.
They have eight games in which to save themselves and no one is under any illusion as to the task at hand. Nolan is a veteran of several survival fights with Bolton, and knows the importance of cool heads in difficult circumstances. "What we have to do when we don't pick up points is not get too down about it," he said. "The next game is always around the corner. We can't mope around – we have got to turn the corner."
