Gary Neville has noticed something 'different' about Newcastle that will give fans renewed hope

Gary Neville has backed Newcastle United to stay up after the Magpies 'jumped up a level' under Eddie Howe.

Newcastle have moved four points clear of the relegation zone following a remarkable swing in results in the bottom half of the table in recent weeks.

To put that turnaround into perspective, there was a 10-point gap between Newcastle and newly-promoted Brentford following the black-and-whites' 4-0 defeat at the hands of champions Man City back in December.

Howe's side have since gone on a six-game unbeaten run in the league and could now leapfrog 14th-placed Brentford in the table with a win in the capital on Saturday.

Although Watford and Burnley showed signs of life at the weekend, at a time when Norwich, Brentford, Leeds and Everton are all looking particularly vulnerable, Neville has felt that Newcastle have 'jumped up a level that will mean that they will start looking up the table'.

"I was at Newcastle last week and came to the conclusion that I was watching a team that wasn't going to get relegated," Neville told his self-titled podcast after watching both the 1-0 win against Aston Villa and the 1-1 draw at West Ham.

"Massive improvements in all ways. Just the way they pushed up the pitch, the way in which they were playing, the confidence, the atmosphere in the stadium, it was different.

"I watched the game on Saturday, or large parts of the game, against West Ham and thought, again, they were really resilient and good. Good goal by [Joe] Willock. Just that little sort of touch. It was clever that."