Rafa Benitez tells Newcastle to forget grim derby run

Newcastle should not let recent derby history weigh them down when Sunderland visit on Sunday, Rafa Benitez says.

Sunderland have won six north east derbys on the spin, and a seventh victory this weekend would open up a four-point gap on their relegation rivals from up the road.

But Benitez, preparing to renew a long-standing rivalry with opposition manager Sam Allardyce, wants newcastle to go into the huge Super Sunday game with a new outlook.

"When you have a derby, anything can happen," he said. "Every game, every season, every manager, new players, so everything changes and hopefully we can change also the result and the score will be good for us.

"But you cannot be thinking about what happened in the past, you have to concentrate on what you will do on the pitch and what will happen in the future. It's really good if you can win, and we will try to think about that and nothing else.

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"We know that every game is really, really important and especially this one because it's a derby and the situation in the table for both teams, so we know we have to get these three points to keep the positive mood that we have at the moment."

Benitez's first match in charge ended in defeat at leaders Leicester on Monday, but the Spaniard was encouraged by his new side's performance.

"The players know we played against Leicester at the top of the table and we did a good job," he said. "We lost and that is the main thing, but still you could see some positives.

"I will try to start with these positives and then approach the derby with this idea that we have done good things and they have to carry on doing these good things for a while.

"At this stage of the season, every game, every point is really important and we have to be really, really focused."