Newcastle United have a few days to lick their wounds before one of the most crucial away games in years at Elland Road this Saturday lunchtime.
It's a game that could hardly have been stage-managed any better for the neutral with Leeds knowing they need three points to aid their survival bid, and Newcastle eyeing victory to help get them over the line as far as the Champions League is concerned.
Standing in the middle of it all is Big Sam Allardyce who of course has a history with Newcastle after being sacked by Mike Ashley in 2008 before striking the final blow to United's Premier League relegation as Sunderland boss in 2016. Getting one over on the Magpies is not at the top of his priority list these days, the former Bolton Wanderers boss is simply fighting to keep his new club Leeds in the top division.
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If they stay up Allardyce will get another chance to impose himself on the big time, if they go down his stint at Leeds could be even shorter that Brian Clough's ill-fated 44 days at Elland Road back in 1974! Leeds have been in a mess in the build-up to Saturday's game and players found themselves apologising for snubbing a young fan who wasn't even afforded a smile by the squad ahead of their recent loss with AFC Bournemouth.
Allardyce won't put up with that sort of thing and Big Sam is the last person you want to bump into when the stakes are as high as they are for Newcastle. Eddie Howe must simply get his players back to basics, and back to the team that has rarely dropped out of the top four all season.
Allardyce had just a couple of days to work with his new squad this week and in fairness they gave Man City a game at the Etihad Stadium, winning the second half in a 2-1 defeat. The build-up to Saturday will give Big Sam the luxury of a whole week to prepare for the crunch clash between two tough northern cities whose fans don't really like each other.
Last season Newcastle were able to grind out a season-defining 1-0 win at Elland Road as Jonjo Shelvey's free-kick put the Magpies on the road to safety. But so much has changed since then, Shelvey has left the club for Nottingham Forest and Newcastle are classed as Champions League contenders not relegation candidates.
Going into the game against Newcastle, Allardyce said: "It's the same old story every manager says really, try to get three points against Newcastle, try to take each game at a time. We've got to try to get better between now and next week. We have to increase our performance by 5%.
"What let us down in the first half at Man City was when we were in possession. It was too rushed and it wasn't accurate enough.
"We weren't hitting the right places and we weren't clinical enough. When we did that a bit more of that in the second half we got more attacking options. This gave the defenders a bit of respite so they could regroup and defend again. I was pleased with the second half."
Despite defeat against the Gunners, Eddie Howe felt his team still played well on Sunday. And they did - having a dozen goal attempts, striking the post twice and bringing the best out of Aaron Ramsdale throughout the afternoon.
If football was ever a results-driven business for Newcastle though, it's in the final 20 days of this extraordinary season. Beat Leeds and they could be just a win away from the Champions League and Howe would probably take a scrappy victory right now if you offered him it.
Howe summed it up after the game and said: "We want to produce entertainment but we want results as well. We were not quite at our very, very best although we still played well.
"Our message now is we need to be really positive. We have four games left, four huge games, and we need everybody, players, staff and supporters focused on the next challenge."
