'Big games ahead': Bruno Guimaraes' reaction after a massive win today highlights tricky couple of weeks ahead for Newcastle United

Newcastle United moved up to fifth in the table after beating Nottingham Forest and are now level on points with Manchester City, who were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool.

The magnitude of the three points Newcastle picked up today can not be overlooked. It wasn't just three points closer to a Champions League place, but it was three points taken off a fellow top-four chasing side.

The race for the Champions League places is so tight this season that every point is huge, and with Liverpool up next for the Magpies, they must take the positives from today's win and push on.

More importantly, perhaps, they have to analyse just what went wrong in that dire second half that saw them almost blow a three-goal lead.

Bruno Guimaraes could do with listening to his own advice

Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes acknowledged the huge win today on X, but made a point of making sure we all know that they are focused on the upcoming fixtures, which includes a trip to Wembley in the Carabao Cup final.

"Three very important points. Very happy about this, but we have to play better, especially when we have the advantage. Your support made the difference once again. Howay the boys! Big games ahead, and we keep going together as always.3️⃣9️⃣🖤🤍"

Bruno has looked off it lately, so he really needs to heed his own advice here, but then, pretty much every player in black and white on the pitch in that second half needs to give their heads a wobble and kiss Lewis Hall's feet because he was the only one who didn't drop off the face of the Earth.

We should be in a celebratory mood, but instead, we're already panicking about Wednesday

We should be in celebration mode after a win today, but Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night has already got our stomachs churning. If we'd continued that calm, measured, and clinical display from the first half going for the full game, we'd be feeling a lot more comfortable, but we just don't know which Newcastle United is going to show up on Merseyside.

Anfield has never been kind to us at the best of times, so we absolutely can not afford to step off like we did in the second half today, or even worse, like we did against Manchester City last week.

The time of giving these opponents so much respect has to come to an end. We have to get right up in their faces rather than trying to hit them on the counter. We are capable of it. Let's show it!