Marveaux: Newcastle not safe from relegation

Posted Wednesday, April 10, 2013 by YAHOO Sport

Sylvain Marveaux insists Newcastle United is still not safe from relegation despite its 1-0 win over Fulham on Sunday.

Papiss Cisse netted a late winner against Martin Jol's side to fire Alan Pardew's men to 13th in the Premier League, but just five points above the drop zone. Marveaux is keen for Newcastle to beat against local rival and relegation candidate Sunderland in their derby clash on Sunday and insists the aim is to reduce the pressure at the club towards the end of the season.

"I don't think we're safe yet. Obviously it was important to get the three points because we now have a difficult game on Thursday [against Benfica], and then the most important game on Sunday," Marveaux told the Northern Echo. "It was good to get three points to have more confidence to be able to play with less stress and pressure, but we still have to carry on winning, especially at the weekend.

"We know how important the [Sunderland] game is for the club and the fans. The situation puts even more importance on this game.

"When we play at home, we play to win, it doesn't matter what team we play. But on Sunday it will be a game we cannot lose, for the club, for the fans and to be able to finish the season with less pressure."

The midfielder also believes Newcastle is capable of overcoming Benfica and reaching the Europa League semifinals, despite trailing 3-1 from the first leg in Portugal.

"We have two goals to score and we can't concede any," Marveaux said. "We just have to get ourselves ready, because everyone is pretty tired after the last two games, but hopefully we'll be able to score quickly and that will make it a different game.

"We'll be trying to get an early goal because that could be important. We have the quality to beat them, although they were a very good team when we played them away. I think they can score as well so we will have to be solid."