RAFAEL BENITEZ has urged his Newcastle United players to prove they are up to dealing with the pressures of promotion showdowns in the Championship ahead of tonight’s intriguing battle between the top two.

The Magpies have fallen a point behind the leaders as the clubs prepare to go head-to-head at the Amex Stadium, with suggestions his players have let their standards slip after draws against Norwich and Bristol City in their last three games.

Yet the reality is that Newcastle head to the south coast undefeated in the last eight games in the league, taking their points tally to 70 after 33 games to remain on course for the Premier League.

That is the same number of points at this stage of the season as Newcastle had when Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager, led them to the title in 2009-10; it is only one shy of the 71 point tally which Kevin Keegan’s crop of 1992-1993 accrued.

Newcastle boast a better gaol difference (by four) to that Keegan group, even if Hughton’s side were superior by one. Such statistics vindicate Benitez’s confidence that they are on track for an immediate top-flight return, even if he would still like to see more from his charges.

“I’d like to be higher,” said Benitez, with a smile. “We had a figure of 90 points that would guarantee promotion, but not now. That might not be enough. We have to think about one game at a time.

“We don’t know if that will be enough. I was manager of Napoli and we did not qualify from our Champions League group with 12 points and some do it with seven. I have no problem if someone said to me now that we would go up in second, I would take that. I don’t have a problem with trophies.”

Hughton’s team won the title at Plymouth in 2010 and Benitez was asked who had the better Newcastle team?

Benitez said: “They had a lot of good players that year (2010), strong characters and leaders, but I still think this division is more difficult now than it was. Everybody is spending money now, everyone knows how important it is to be in the Premier League.

“If you see the names they had, the characteristics of the players, they were a Premier League team. That is obvious.

“Now, when you are relegated you have to lose some good players, get rid of some players and you have to build something new. They didn’t really bring anyone in until the January. They kept the same core.”

Now Benitez will try to negotiate the current Newcastle group to a victory at Brighton that will lift them back to the top of the Championship. It would be the ideal start to a run of away fixtures against promotion chasing teams, with Huddersfield and Reading up next.

He said: “The main thing for me is you must only think about the next challenge, the next game. What I did in a Champions League final does not change anything. We analyse every team and every game. It doesn’t matter what I did with other teams, this is a new challenge.

“April will be crucial, I’ve said it for months. If we win the next three games, maybe that will be crucial, but we have seven games in April and that is when things will be decided. That’s 24 points …”