Sam Allardyce knows the pressure is on one of the Premier League's most under-threat managers tonight at Pride Park, but the Newcastle United boss knows it could just as easily have been him fighting for his job had the Magpies not made such a good start to the season.
Allardyce - 'A Good Start Is SO Important'!
Billy Davies' job as Derby County manager is supposedly being touted around after the Rams took just one point from their opening five games.
Allardyce: "In the middle of the season you can not win one in five games on the trot but, if you've just won five on the trot, you'll probably only slip a couple of places in the table.
Allardyce: "In the middle of the season you can not win one in five games on the trot but, if you've just won five on the trot, you'll probably only slip a couple of places in the table.
"But if you don't win any of your first five games at the start of the season you're going to be the first one sacked - we've already seen the massive pressure that has been heaped on managers this season - look at Billy Davies and Martin Jol. That sort of pressure becomes detrimental to your players.
"The most important thing is a good start to stop people putting pressure on you. You've got to stop people putting pressure on yourself and your players and the best way you can do that is with a good start.
"We're still getting to know each other - the players and the backroom staff - but we're undefeated and we want to stay undefeated after Derby.
"We're still gelling, but if we keep improving we should win more games than we lose. I'm confident we can grow in confidence and become better than we are. I'm never completely satisfied, but I'm very happy with this squad of players I've got. We can be better than what I achieved at Bolton."