FOR a number of players at Newcastle United, this season has been about making amends for the year they went down. For Danny Simpson, this season is a chance to prove he can handle the Premier League.

Simpson graduated through the Manchester United Academy system, played three times in the league for them before heading out for a top-flight spell at Blackburn and then moving to Newcastle in September 2009.

After successfully proving himself in the Championship, helping the Magpies to the Football League title, his temporary switch became permanent 12 months ago and he has performed competently in the Premier League this season.

He has played in 14 of Newcastles 22 league games and his form has alerted England coach Fabio Capello, who has been considering calling him up for the friendly in Denmark on February 9.

Despite his rise to prominence, however, Simpson does not feel like he has proven himself to be worthy of a long term career at the highest level - but he is determined to do so.

"I still don't feel like I've established myself in the Premier League yet," said Simpson, ahead of todays meeting with Tottenham where he will be asked to keep Gareth Bale quiet.

"This is still my first proper season and it's too early for me to be saying, yeah I'm a Premier League defender now.

"I had a few months at Blackburn in the Premier League, but I went back to Manchester United. I still feel I need to improve and there are things I still need to work on.

"If I'm still in the team and we're still in this division at the end of the season, maybe then I can start to believe I'm a decent player at this level."

It is not that Simpson performed poorly when he was at Blackburn and Manchester United, he was just a young right-back emerging and looking to gain more consistency and experience.

But even though he was a key figure in Newcastles promotion winning team of last season, he suggests the clubs fans had not seen the best of him until now.

He said: "There were definitely questions marks surrounding me at the start of the season, but what a lot of people didn't realise is I had played for three or four months last season with an ankle problem.

"We wanted to keep it in house, but it was hard because I knew I wasn't playing as well as I could and some people were probably thinking I wasn't good enough to play in the Premier League, if I was a struggling in the Championship. Thankfully I had the operation in the summer and I've come through it with flying colours."

Simpson had earlier spells on loan with Sunderland, who he helped win the Championship, and Ipswich, but it is only now that he feels like his career is progressing.

"This was a great move for me and Im really happy here," he said. "I love living in Newcastle. It was precisely the move I needed at this stage of my career."