'Really pleased': Jason Tindall has been impressed with what his Newcastle United players have managed to do recently

It has been a whirlwind month or so for Newcastle United after lifting the Carabao Cup and then returning to Premier League action with back-to-back wins.

In 2023, Newcastle's Wembley trip to face Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final ended up being a huge distraction for the club and it ended up impacting the team's form and ultimately, Newcastle lost the final and their poor form around the final led to them missing out on European football.

This time around, Newcastle handled everything better from the run-up, the final itself and everything after and the Magpies are still on course for Champions League football if they finish the season strongly.

Jason Tindall, filling in for Eddie Howe for Friday morning's press conference was asked his thoughts on how Newcastle have handled the cup distraction.

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Jason Tindall has been 'really pleased' with how his players have handled the hype after winning the EFL Cup

After winning their first trophy in over 50 years, we imagine it was hard to keep Newcastle's players' feet on the ground, but Jason Tindall says he is impressed with how they've handled it.

"We have been really pleased. After such a big high, it's almost easy to lose your focus a little bit and get a bit distracted with everything that's gone on and all the talk around the city but we have got a fantastic group of players. They know the expectations, the demands, put on them.

"The manager drives that every single day and the one thing about Eddie is he won't let anyone almost take themselves to a place other than where they need to be and that's the daily work and delivering the performance. Psychologically they need to know where they need to be in their heads to be able to deliver those types of performances.

"Two tough games - Brentford at home and Leicester away - where we're probably expected to win but everybody was looking at us to see how we would perform after the cup final and it was important that we delivered the results that we did. It sets up nicely now for the Man United game"

Newcastle could find themselves in third place in the league on Wednesday

The big task facing Newcastle now is maintaining that level of focus and picking up the results needed to sustain a challenge for the Champions League places.

There is a scenario that could see Newcastle jump into third place on Wednesday which would be a huge confidence boost to the lads heading into the final games.

However, we shouldn't be looking for other clubs to do us any favours. If we continue to pick up points like we have been, we should have our own fate in our own hands.