ONE of the biggest weeks of his two-and-a-half year reign was how Alan Pardew described Newcastle United's up-coming three matches and he thinks Thursday night's defeat in Portugal will galvanise his group to attack the period with vigour.

Losing 3-1 to a very dangerous Benfica side at the Estadio da Luz has left the Magpies with an uphill struggle when the teams meet again in the return leg at St James' Park in five days time.

Reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League remains a top target for Pardew, who has regularly spoken of his desire to win the competition this season.

But it is the two domestic fixtures in the next eight days which are also prominent in the manager's thinking, knowing Premier League survival remains the ultimate priority.

After tomorrow's visit of in-form Fulham – undefeated in five - it is Sunderland's turn to head to St James' a week later in the Premier League for the first Tyne-Wear match-up with Paolo Di Canio.

And after watching his players dig in to try to deal with Benfica's forwards on Thursday, Pardew is hoping they will show a similar defensive attitude – without the individual errors which cost his team dearly.

“I thought Benfica had good strikers in Lima, Oscar Cardozo and Rodrigo, real quality, especially with their little one-twos on the edge of the box, playing around you and round the corner,” said Pardew, whose side sit just three points above the relegation zone.

“They had a great little spell just before half-time against us on Thursday - that was their best period and that is the kind of quality we will get from Bryan Ruiz and Dimitar Berbatov when we face Fulham.

“Berbatov caused us a lot of problems at their place and he is a great player. We have to make sure we take care of him or we could have problems.”

Papiss Cisse's opening goal inside the opening ten minutes against Benfica had Newcastle nicely placed until the Portuguese league leaders stepped up a gear and found the net three times through Rodrigo, Lima and Cardozo.

But Pardew is hopeful Newcastle can focus on the positive start they had to give them renewed belief, despite an awareness Newcastle's tally of 56 conceded goals in the Premier League is the third worst in the division.

He said: “I think we have actually gained confidence from the way we played.

“When you go away from Benfica, beaten 3-1 and you are really disappointed because we have gifted them two goals, you have got to take that into the next game. We caused them some problems and Papiss in particular was a threat all night.

“Momentum will be key for the whole of next week. It is important we get ourselves in a real positive place. It is a big week in terms of the season, for sure and we need to win. It is one of the biggest weeks in my period here.”

Versatile forward Yoan Gouffran will return to the squad after his ineligibility for the Europa League quarter-final, but there will be no comebacks for Cheik Tiote, Massadio Haidara or Fabricio Coloccini.

Pardew added: “It was a tough game in Lisbon but just as tough as the others we have had and there is no reason why we can’t show our strength on the pitch on Sunday.”

The Newcastle boss also stood by left-back Davide Santon, whose awful back pass against Benfica gifted Lima the goal which put Newcastle behind for the first.

And he is hopeful the whole squad will be primed to deal with such a crucial period of the season after three straight defeats to Benfica, Manchester City and Wigan.

Pardew said: “Davide immediately came into the dressing room and apologised to the players. I thought he had a great game against a really good player. He just did not see him. That happens. Unfortunately for us, it happened at a bad time.

“We will have to cope with the pressure on Fulham. Can we? We are going to have to and I am confident we have the ability in the squad to get ourselves into a position in the league where we are a Premier League side next season.

“That is the focus for Sunday and then we switch back to Thursday to try to climb what will be a difficult hill, not what I would call a mountain but a decent hill, to try and get up it.”