Parker sees Carling Cup as springboard to success

The England international, who produced a typically belligerent display to help the Magpies edge out a pumped-up Grimsby on Wednesday night, knows all about the merits of a competition that has had more than its fair share of critics in recent years.

Last season, three of Parker's seven starts came in the Carling Cup, with Chelsea eventually beating Liverpool at Cardiff to lift the trophy.

Jose Mourinho was rightly lauded for the club's Premiership triumph but, tellingly, the Chelsea boss pinpoints that League Cup success as the moment his players genuinely started to see themselves as winners.

Parker is hoping a similarly cathartic process can happen on Tyneside, and the chances of Newcastle enjoying a lengthy Carling Cup run have undoubtedly increased following the early exits of Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool.

"I've always held the League Cup in high esteem," explained the 25-year-old, who was in the Chelsea side that dumped the Magpies out of the competition last year. "Jose certainly made a lot of winning it.

"It was the first trophy Chelsea won last season and it got the ball rolling for everything that happened afterwards.

"It was also a competition that meant a lot to me personally because it was where I was able to play most of my football. I played a lot of games in the Carling Cup and the wins we had in that competition spilled over into everything else that was going on.

"The Carling Cup has its knockers - but it certainly doesn't seem like that when you're at the final.

"You soon know about it when there are 80,000 fans screaming at you and, at the end, you're picking up a trophy and celebrating on the pitch.

"It's something we've got to take very seriously and, as you saw on Wednesday night, we're doing exactly that."

After entering the competition at the third round stage, Newcastle already find themselves just three wins away from a date at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

With the likes of Leicester and Millwall in the hat for Saturday's fourth-round draw, a slice of luck could dramatically alter the course of the club's season.

"If you get through a couple of games, you're already thinking about quarter-finals and semi-finals," admitted Parker.

"It's a big competition for us. It's well-documented that Newcastle need a trophy - this is one of the three that we started the season able to win, so naturally it's a big deal.

"Hopefully, this is our route to a bit of silverware and a return to Europe. If we apply ourselves right, we know we're only a couple of wins away from being in a really big game."

First, though, the Magpies need to address their hopelessly inconsistent league form. The club's last three Premiership games have included a win, a draw and a defeat - hardly the kind of run that will eradicate the effects of a dreadful start to the season.

Last weekend's derby win against Sunderland provided some much-needed confidence, but Parker admits it is time his side discovered a more resilient streak.

They remain within seven points of second-placed Charlton - the club with which the midfielder started his career - and are targeting consecutive wins over West Brom and Birmingham to help bridge that gap.

"We need to kick on now," said Parker. "Personally, I don't think the league is the best of leagues this year.

"If you look at the table, a couple of good results can make a massive amount of difference to where a team is placed. There are an awful lot of teams within a few points of each other, and I don't see that changing between now and the end of the season.

"Charlton have showed what you can do with a run of wins. Back-to-back victories are going to be massively important this year, because they could take you five or six places up the table in the space of a week.

"But we've got to get those back-to-back wins. Sunday's win will count for nothing if we don't follow it up at West Brom. If we can win this weekend, we're going to be much nearer to where we know we need to be."

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