KARL DARLOW claims he has unfinished business in the Premier League, but the Newcastle United goalkeeper still looks back on his nine top-flight appearances as a key part of his footballing development.

Having spent his first season as a Newcastle player on loan at Nottingham Forest, Darlow spent the vast majority of last term playing second fiddle to first Tim Krul and then Rob Elliot.

A Premier League debut at West Brom was a somewhat traumatic affair, with a goalkeeping error contributing to the Baggies’ winner, so externally at least, there was a sense of mounting trepidation when an escalating injury crisis meant Darlow was forced to play in the final eight games of the season.

His elevation to a regular starting spot might have coincided with Newcastle dropping out of the top-flight, but he was hardly to blame, and his increasingly assured performances meant he was confident of his abilities when Rafael Benitez restored him to the starting line-up in late September.

“It (playing in the Premier League) was good for me,” said Darlow. “Coming to a new club, I was on the bench a lot of last season. I knew I was going to have to be patient and wait for my chance in the Premier League.

“It was good for me to come in for those last eight games and really prove to myself I could play at that level. That’s where I want to be playing.

“Coming off playing a lot of games in the Championship for Nottingham Forest, it was a massive step up coming to the Premier League.

“I found that out the hard way in the West Brom game. But I wanted to prove to myself and prove to everyone that I’m good enough to play in the Premier League.”

Now, Darlow’s main priority is to help engineer a return to the top-flight, and while Brighton will move level on points with Newcastle at the top of the table if they beat Aston Villa this evening, the Magpies are still extremely well placed with just over a third of the Championship season played.

Benitez’s arrival in March helped generate momentum, and that has carried over to the current campaign despite a blip that saw Newcastle lose their opening two games.

Since losing to Huddersfield in August, they have won ten of their subsequent 12 league games, and if the end of last season is taken into account, they have been performing creditably for more than six months.

“It was a relegation battle that we couldn't, unfortunately, get out of,” said Darlow. “But since the manager came in, we’ve had a real good go at it. Had we had the results from the back eight or nine games all season, we would have stayed up comfortably, I think.

“It was a tough lesson to learn for the team, but I think it has inspired everyone even more now. We want to get this club back up, because we feel responsible for going down.”

Despite a host of summer changes, Darlow is one of seven players to have started Newcastle’s most recent game against Cardiff who were also part of the squad that suffered relegation last season.

That degree of continuity has been important, although Benitez’s successful summer signing spree is also a key factor in the Magpies’ rapid stabilisation in the Championship.

“One thing he (Benitez) did was recruit very, very well,” said Darlow. “There’s a lot of quality in this team with a lot of experience at the same time, and knowing this league, we’ll need all of that.

“It’s a long, hard grind. If we want to achieve anything from it, we’ll need to be consistent throughout. Hopefully, we’ve got the right balance.”