Victory over West Brom at the Hawthorns took Newcastle’s run of successive wins to five and in doing so confirmed a burgeoning love affair with a certain month of the year.
That’s right N is Newcastle, N is for November.
In 2013/14 the 11th month yielded the 12 points from a possible 12 that did so much to maintain a top-half finish for the Magpies despite their subsequent nosedive.
This term Alan Pardew’s men are once again two games deep into their favourite 30 days of the year without dropping a point and must be cursing the arrival of the international break.
However, they’ll return for two more winnable games before the month is out, first hosting Queens Park Rangers, before making the trip to West Ham.
The very real prospect that Newcastle might end up landing six league wins on the bounce makes the 28/1 about a top-six finish at the end of this topsy turvy campaign a fine price.
After all, but three seasons ago the Toon Army could be forgiven a twinge of disappointment for finishing fifth.
At present the Tynesiders sit in eighth place, a solitary point behind Arsenal in sixth, while their rapidly improved defensive record has ensured that they aren’t adrift on goal-difference either.
Behind them Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham, all off whom snuck into the sextet last season, are two points in arrears.
Above them Southampton are on the cusp of a major reality check that sees them face Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea before the end of 2014.
West Ham and Swansea are widely expected to level off after excellent starts too.
If Newcastle remain faithful to their love affair with November then they’ll have every chance of being positioned right alongside the aforementioned gravity defying mid-fry when their own sobering run of fixtures arrives in early December.
