PAPISS CISSE has urged his Newcastle United team-mates to use the last five days as the spark that could save their season.

Having claimed their first win in eight matches as Swansea were beaten 3-0 on Saturday, the Magpies followed up their weekend success with an equally impressive 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

The four-point haul has taken them to within two points of safety with four games remaining, and rekindled survival hopes that had been all but extinguished when Newcastle lost at Norwich at the start of the month.

With Norwich not having a game this weekend, and Sunderland not playing until Sunday, Newcastle will climb out of the bottom three for the first time since early February if they win at Liverpool on Saturday, and while their Premier League record at Anfield is abject, they will at least have some momentum on their side when they travel to Merseyside.

“It’s never going to be easy to go to Liverpool,” said Cisse, who has been preferred to Aleksandar Mitrovic for Newcastle’s last two matches. “But we have a team now that is ready to play and take on any team, and we have to do so.

“We can change the way the away form has been going. The work and the form we have at home, we have to take that into the away games. We need to do something at Anfield and try to win the game.”

Saturday’s game represents Benitez’s second return to Anfield since leaving Liverpool, with the first having ended in a 2-2 draw when he was manager of Chelsea.

The Spaniard is assured of a warm reception thanks to his role in the remarkable Champions League final comeback win in Istanbul, and Cisse feels his arrival as Steve McClaren’s replacement has been the single most important factor in initiating a turnaround that could yet end in Newcastle clambering to safety.

“Since the new gaffer came, he’s made everybody happy and given the chance for everyone to show the people how he’d like everyone to play,” said the striker. “Everyone has had the feeling to give 100 per cent every time on the training ground and in the game.

“That is a good point because we have a connection with the gaffer. We speak to him, and I think that’s a good thing.”

It is tempting to wonder what might have happened had Benitez been parachuted in sooner and had five or six more matches in which to engineer an improvement.

The 56-year-old was dismissed from Real Madrid at the start of January, and the following month, McClaren was under intense pressure following a 5-1 thrashing at Chelsea.

However, he was allowed to oversee a training camp in La Manga and took charge of defeats against Stoke and Bournemouth - both games that would now be regarded as ‘winnable’ – before he was dismissed.

“They should have got Rafa in a bit earlier and I don’t think we would be in the position we are now,” said former Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer, in the wake of Tuesday’s game.

“It’s taken Benitez a while to know his players, to understand his players. Mitrovic is out, (Jonjo) Shelvey is out, they’re out for a reason – they’ve not given enough to the team.”

Georginio Wijnaldum was also dropped against Manchester City, and there is little chance of the Dutchman returning to the starting side at the weekend.

Benitez clearly regards Ayoze Perez’s work rate and energy as superior assets, and the Spaniard is set to continue alongside Moussa Sissoko and Andros Townsend at Anfield.