WHEN Newcastle United approached Ciaran Clark last summer, the centre-half was left with a dilemma. Turn down the Magpies and stay with Aston Villa, a club in turmoil after their relegation to the Championship, or jump ship and join Newcastle, a club going through their own period of crisis after also dropping into the second tier?

From the outside, it looked like a difficult decision. But from the moment he moved to Tyneside, in a £5m deal, the Irish international was adamant it had not taken him long to make up his mind.

Yes, Newcastle were reeling after failing to scramble to safety, but at least they had Rafael Benitez, a manager with experience of winning the Champions League, and a flurry of new signings who were willing to drop out of the top-flight in order to ply their trade at St James’ Park.

Villa were infinitely more unstable, and eight months on from Clark’s departure from Villa Park, a sense of order is still to be restored at his former employers. Newcastle, on the other hand, head into this afternoon’s game with Fulham sitting on top of the table, with a nine-point gap separating them from Huddersfield Town in the first of the play-off positions. It goes without saying that the defender’s decision has been justified.

“You can never predict what’s going to happen, but when I moved here, I just had a feeling that the club was set up to bounce back,” said Clark, who has not missed a Championship game since the middle of September. “I just felt we were in a good position to get things moving in the right direction again.

“It was always a club that was set up to fight to get back to the Premier League. There were a lot of things to that – the manager staying was a big factor, and then the quality of the signings that came in was another big positive.

“All of that meant it was a no-brainer for me to come here, and at the minute, it looks a good decision. Hopefully, we can keep fighting and keep winning until the end of the season and get back up to the Premier League.”

With ten games of the season to go, Newcastle could hardly be better placed. Things haven’t always been that positive though, with today’s game against Fulham providing a reminder of a time when nerves were jangling rather more feverishly than they are now.

Last August, the Magpies lost at Craven Cottage in their opening game of the season before following up with a home defeat to Huddersfield eight days later. The two defeats left Newcastle in 21st position, hardly the start that was anticipated after a summer of optimism.

Externally, there was a sense of undisguised panic, but within the confines of the dressing room, Newcastle’s players were able to maintain an even keel.

“Naturally, from the outside, people were looking at us having lost the first two games and thinking, ‘That wasn’t meant to be like that’,” said Clark. “It wasn’t what everyone thought was going to happen, but as players we stayed level-headed about it.

“We worked on it in training, and turned things around. The results turned, and around the place, we knew we had the confidence, the belief and the players to turn it around and get ourselves back up to the right end of the league. We’ve done that, and we just want to keep going now.”

Clark did not start in either of the opening games, with Benitez pairing Grant Hanley with Jamaal Lascelles at Fulham and combining Lascelles with Chancel Mbemba against Huddersfield.

With neither partnership proving particularly successful, Clark came into the side to face Reading, and the 27-year-old’s defensive relationship with Lascelles has proved a key factor in Newcastle’s subsequent surge up the table.

“We’ve gelled together as a defence pretty quickly,” said Clark. “It didn’t take that long for us to get to know each other. We’re all good lads, we all work hard, and we all want to improve and learn.

“To be honest, we found it pretty easy to get straight in there and start doing the job. The more you train together, that obviously helps. You start to learn what each player is about, and the main thing was getting us all working together as a team. We did that pretty quickly, and it’s been good since then.”

As a result, Newcastle head into today’s game looking to strengthen their position at the head of affairs. Being at the top of the table brings its own pressures, but Clark would much rather be dealing with the current stresses and strains than revisiting the situation he found himself in at the same stage of last season, when things were imploding at Aston Villa.

“It’s a good pressure, being at the top of league,” he said. “It’s a different kind of pressure to what I’ve been used to, but I’m really enjoying it.

“We’re doing the best we can to try to get up, and it’s all positive. I’m really enjoying being here, and being part of this. I’m looking forward to the next few games, and the remaining games of the season. In the form we’re in, we just want to keep going.”