More Pressure On Hughes Than Kinnear?

As for Joe, he knows he will be out of work in five or six weeks ... but six weeks is a long time in football.

Five or six wins; a derby day thrashing of Sunderland; or the new owners deciding to take a chance on him ... who knows what can change.

Mark Hughes: "He (Joe Kinnear) has made an immediate impact. I think that is what he anticipated he was going to do.

"Everyone seems to be pulling closer together. They had a decent result against Everton, coming back from 2-0 down to draw.

"That shows there is fire in the side. He got the reaction he wanted.

"Joe has been a football man for many years. He understands how the game works and maybe he is using every dark art he can find out there to make sure the club is successful. Every manager looks to do that.

"Joe's teams had a certain style of play you had to combat. You had to stand up to the fight.

"I think what he is trying to do now is instil a little bit more confidence into a very good group of players.

"What Newcastle lack is that confidence of winning games, week-in, week out.

"There is a lot of pressure on them from lots of outside influences and from themselves as well.

"They are good players who maybe have not performed as people would expect them to. It is a case of building their confidence.

"We are not there yet. On our day we can give anyone a game because of the attacking and technical ability we have in the side.

"But if we are to challenge the top four, we have to win on a consistent basis. That's what the top four teams do.

"We do not have that capacity yet. We are working on that and trying to get better. We could do with winning five or six games on the trot as that would help our cause."