Dan Burn hails 40 points of ‘success’ and insists Newcastle are in no mood to quit

Dan Burn has insisted Newcastle are in no mood to quit now after pulling themselves out of Premier League relegation troubles and within reach of the top 10.

The Magpies climbed 15 points from the drop zone in Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace at St James’ Park, their sixth win in Tyneside, something they had not achieved in the top flight since 2004 during Sir Bobby Robson’s reign.

It left them 11th on 40 points with Brighton in 10th with five games to go but with safety mathematically not yet assured and top-two Manchester City and Liverpool among their remaining opponents , they want to keep the ball rolling.

Defender Burn said: “Well 40 is the magic number but until we’re done we’ll just keep going. We don’t want to stop there, we want to go as high as possible.

“I think it’s a progression from where we were when ownership came to where we are now.”

Burn was still wearing Brighton colors when the new owners of Newcastle completed their takeover last October and the club he was set to join in January were five points off safety when they appointed Eddie Howe as head coach the following month appointed.

Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan was back at St James on Wednesday for the first time since January 8 to watch the Magpies lose 1-0 to League One Cambridge in the FA Cup as the awaited turnaround proved elusive tangible proved.

But in the meantime they have won nine of their 14 league games and lost just three.

Their most recent success came courtesy of a fine 32nd-minute strike from Miguel Almiron and a concerted rearguard action in the second half that kept Palace in check and sparked wild celebrations after the final whistle that reminded youth fan Burn of the days when he the club saw action in the Champions League against Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen.

He said: “I love playing at home. It feels like it used to be when I was a kid.”

If the official line is that there is still work to be done, it seems only a matter of time before Newcastle can turn their attention to their summer recruiting mission.

Palace boss Patrick Vieira also refuses to look too far into the future as he challenges his players to prove they still have a role to play in his brave new world.

Vieira said: “You always want to improve individually and collectively. We want to be a better team, but we don’t want to take stock just yet.

“There are six games left, six really important games for us. Of course, if we draw that conclusion, we will see how the players behave and how much they want to compete every week, how far they want to push themselves and continue to give everything for the team and the football club.”