Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez said that the club should be over-confident about winning promotion and that the players should continue to work hard in training.

Newcastle United has opened a nine-point lead with the third-placed club, and this has prompted Burton boss Nigel Clough to state that Newcastle United is the favorite to win automatic promotion to the Premier League.

Rafael Benitez stated that he does not agree with this statement as he feels that the lead could melt quickly if the team went into a negative spiral of results.

He said that it all depends on consistency. If the team loses consistency, they can end up falling down the table and damaging their chances of promotion. He said that the only way to prevent this is to keep working hard and to make sure that they keep winning matches.

Benitez said playing in the Championship is different from playing in the Premier League. He said that every game is a physical challenge and that the players need to be at their best if they want to win games.

For him, the league is still long, and nine points is not a big lead. He believes that there are plenty of other teams that can challenge for promotion to Premier League and it will all depend on which team remains consistent until the end of the season.

He said that Newcastle United has started the season well and that it is important that they end it well. He said that it does not matter what position you are at Christmas in the Championship as things could change quickly. For him what matters most is where you end up in May and whether you managed to win promotion to the Premier League without going through the play-offs.