RAFAEL BENITEZ can name a Champions League triumph among his memorable achievements when he looks back and reflects on a career spent at the top, and you would think a midweek victory in the second tier of English football would not even register in his thinking.

But for anyone who was at St James’ Park on Wednesday night, to witness a sensational 4-3 victory over Norwich City in the Championship, it will be easier to understand why Benitez expects to remember that night on Tyneside for “the rest of my life”.

Benitez was part of the joyous celebrations after Newcastle had collected three points that lifted them to within touch of the division’s top two courtesy of a dramatic finale which saw Yoan Gouffran and Dwight Gayle hit stoppage-time goals to leave the Canaries defeated.

But the Newcastle boss accepts his players can’t afford to live off that one thrilling victory for long; they have to follow it up with another at bottom club Rotherham today.

Earlier in the month Newcastle followed up a convincing 6-0 win at Queens Park Rangers by losing 2-0 at home to Wolves. It is safe to say Benitez does not want a repeat when he takes his players to the New York Stadium this afternoon.

“You have the good memories, like Istanbul (in 2005 with Liverpool). You will remember, and that's it. You move forward,” said Benitez. “I know what the fans are expecting in a big club like this in this division, or any English club at the top of the table, the fans are expecting that you have to attack.

"Sometimes you have to be very direct, because they want to see the ball close to the box. Sometimes it's not the way. You had the same situation at Liverpool when we were getting stronger and stronger. You have to manage these expectations and keep doing the right things.

"We had a great reaction the other day, and we have to play better to make sure we don't need this every game. You don't just put the ball there and that's it. What we have to understand is to be stronger, and to have control of the games, you have to see what is going on on the pitch and find the solutions.”

Benitez never actually felt there was anything seriously wrong with preparations for the Wolves test after the trip win at QPR. He said: “No, no. It's not that I was worried, it's just obvious that when you get a good result and then you have everyone talking so positively that it's important for everyone to understand.

"But my feeling was that the team was fine. But we started the game making one mistake, another mistake, and similar mistakes that we were trying to avoid during the tactical work we were doing.”

Goalkeeper Karl Darlow is expected to retain his place in the Newcastle line-up at Rotherham, having been preferred to Matz Sels in midweek. The Belgium keeper, who was called up again for his country yesterday, decided to delete his Twitter account after he was criticised in the aftermath of the draw at Aston Villa.

Benitez said: "He's reacted fine; he's training well and I think that he knows what to do. The message is very clear to all players: they have to understand that they have another teammate who is competing to play ahead of them and the way to react is to keep working harder, that's it.

"He's a good professional and it was a difficult decision because I like to support players who work hard, and particularly in the case of the keeper. He was doing well and training well, it's not that he was making 20 mistakes and then we had to chance.

"He had a lot of clean sheets and he was doing well. I had to decide because maybe we needed to be calmer out on the pitch.

“We needed to relax and not create that debate that maybe he was not good enough for the team. Talking with him, he said he was fine, but that's what he has to tell me. Then as a manager you have to have your own feeling.”

Vurnon Anita is back from suspension this afternoon and otherwise there are no fresh injury problems for Benitez.