 COLIN CALDERWOOD has revealed he will return to the City Ground on Saturday night proud of where Newcastle United find themselves at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship. However, after heaping the majority of credit on to his and Chris Hughton’s Toon troops, Calderwood has refused to get ahead of himself going into the clash with the side he managed last season in Nottingham Forest. The former Scotland international defender has preferred to let others take the limelight this season but he feels that Newcastle’s stars can be delighted with their progress to date. He told the Chronicle: “Everybody on the playing side is feeling good about themselves. “They are buoyant and confident and that’s the good side of it. “The realisation, though, is that this is only a small period of the season so far.” Caretaker boss Chris Hughton picked up Coca-Cola’s Championship manager of the month award for both August and September, and with United still topping the table going into mid-October, there is hope within the four walls of St James’s Park that he can make it a unique hat-trick. Yet since former Tottenham Hotspur favourites Calderwood and Hughton were handed the reins at Gallowgate, the ex-Forest boss believes that a determination within the Toon camp was quickly implemented. He said: “I think everybody wanted to start the season well. “I don’t think it has ever been so important for a club to start well like we have. “For a club that was in our situation, it had to be a positive start.” United now have their trickiest run of the season ahead of them so far, starting with Saturday night’s televised clash with Forest. This is quickly followed by an encounter at Scunthorpe United’s tiny Glanford Park, where 7,000 North Lincolnshire natives are drooling ahead of their biggest league fixture in decades, with the game already sold out. And although United have the comfort of a home game with Doncaster Rovers at St James’s, the month is rounded off at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane against another side who will be jostling for promotion with them this term, before the November international break. Calderwood said: “With the international fixtures it has broken the season up nicely into little segments. “There are now five games until the next break so we can review where we are then. It manages itself.” | 
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