The Magpies saw off Wigan Athletic at St. James’ Park on Saturday, while the Terriers slipped to a surprise defeat at home to tomorrow night’s visitors to Tyneside, Burton Albion.
With just over a month of the campaign remaining, United sit a point clear of Brighton & Hove Albion at the summit, and boast the best goal difference in the division by some way.
Benitez, however, is refusing to get carried away by his side’s healthy advantage, with his mantra ahead of tomorrow’s clash the same as ever.
“(Huddersfield) have one game in hand, so we don’t consider this 10-point gap, or whatever. As I have said before, we have a mini-league. We have won one game, and we have seven now. We just have to try and win this mini-league and we will be there. It is still a long, long race,” he said.
“We just have to concentrate on every game. You can do the maths, you can look at the numbers, but it doesn’t matter – you have to win your games. We have to be sure that we are ready tomorrow, and we will try to get three points. After that, we may be closer – depending on the other teams. We have to do our job, and that is it.”
Saturday’s victory was Newcastle’s first on home soil since February, having dropped points against Bristol City and Fulham in recent weeks.
Their latest opponents – who have never visited St. James’ Park before – currently sit four points clear of the relegation zone after losing just once in their last eight outings.
The Brewers made United work hard for their three-point haul at the Pirelli Stadium in December, with Benitez’s side forced to withstand one or two nervy moments en route to a 2-1 win.
The Spaniard acknowledged that tomorrow’s clash is likely to go down as a significant occasion for the Staffordshire outfit, who were plying their trade outside of the EFL as recently as 2009.
“For us, it has been more or less the same situation during the whole season. We have had teams coming here, and it is their game of the season. A lot of players try to impress, normally the TV (cameras) are around, and that means it is a big fixture for everyone,” he said.
“We are used to playing like this, against this kind of team. Burton did really well the other day. It will be tough. They are physically strong, and they have a very clear game-plan. So, I think it is important for us to show character and try to play a little bit better if we can.
“I think you can see that Leeds had problems with Reading, Huddersfield had problems with Burton, and Brighton only won 1-0 – so, at this stage of the season, it is not easy to play the way you want to play when everybody is playing for something. What I liked the other day about our players was their commitment, their effort, their reaction and their character. Those things are really important if you want to win games at the end of the season.”
