GEORGINIO WIJNALDUM believes valuable lessons dished out to Newcastle United’s relegation-threatened players earlier in the season can play a crucial role in keeping Premier League football on Tyneside.

Extending an unbeaten run to four matches has significantly boosted the Magpies’ chances of staying up, with Rafael Benitez instilling a greater work ethic and team spirit in a squad struggling to stay out of the bottom three for the whole campaign.

But Sunderland, a point below Newcastle, remain in the driving seat because they have a game in hand and will stay up if they collect seven points from their final three matches.

But Newcastle, who travel to crisis club Aston Villa on Saturday, will be confident of survival if they can win their remaining fixtures at Villa Park and then at home to Tottenham.

Spurs could yet to travel to the North-East without Mousa Dembele if the Football Association dish out a retrospective ban for the way he appeared to gouge the eye of Chelsea’s Diego Costa on Monday night.

There were also other incidents which could come into the FA’s thinking, while Tottenham are already without Dele Alli for the rest of the season as they look to secure second place behind champions Leicester.

Wijnaldum is keen to avoid a repeat of what happened in December, when Newcastle followed up two victories in a row against Liverpool and Tottenham by failing to win any of their next six.

The Dutchman said: “I don’t want to say that we have the momentum because we already had a few good games and failed to build on it.

“We had a spell where we had three good games and got seven points earlier in the season, and after that we lost to Everton and West Brom. We have to focus game by game and at the end we will see where we finish.

“We can’t be too happy about our form at the moment because it is about being happy at the end of the season, not now.

“Before we have fought until the end in games and we have been unlucky. Now, even if we are not always playing good, the team spirit is good and we are happier than normal. We are not too happy though.

“The most important thing is that we are happy at the end of the season. It feels nice that we are winning games, we work hard to win games, but we will see at the end of the season how happy we really are.”

It is fair to say Wijnaldum’s first year at Newcastle has not gone to plan because the £14.5m former PSV Eindhoven skipper had expected a smoother ride than being threatened with a drop into the Championship.

But he said: “It is possible to enjoy. I have enjoyed being here every game. Before I signed here I knew it could be difficult because they had a few difficult seasons. But I was thinking good things before I made a decision.

“When you hear an atmosphere like we got on Saturday then that’s what I always hoped we could get it like. The atmosphere helped us.

“Atmospheres can go two ways, it can go against you because supporters can say ‘I’m not going to support you as you are in the relegation zone’. The whole season we have counted on the supporters, so that is a good thing for us.”

After hearing the St James’ Park roar during the 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday, Wijnaldum wants to help keep it that way.

He said: “We have got ourselves back into a better situation. Every game is important to us. Every point we can take is crucial at this stage.

“We have beaten Crystal Palace and now we have to show the same mentality at Aston Villa or it will count for less. We have to keep going in these last two games and make sure we stay in the Premier League.”