Magpies take flight from drop zone

Newcastle United 3 Middlesbrough 1

Then Alan Shearer, acting on a mixture of instinct, intuition and desperation, threw on Obafemi Martins.

Within 60 seconds, the Nigerian forward, who inherited Shearer’s number nine shirt, scored the goal that breathes new life into Newcastle’s attempts to stay up. In the wake of their 11th consecutive away defeat, that is now a feat virtually beyond Boro.

“We were magnificent tonight,” said Newcastle’s Steven Taylor. “We need to take this and build on it. We are full of confidence now and can’t wait until the next game.”

A stalemate would have been welcomed by those watching in Hull, Sunderland and West Brom, but Martins had other ideas. With his first touches following his 70th minute introduction, the striker took Mark Viduka’s flick to beat Matthew Bates and, despite losing his footing as he shot, beat Brad Jones from 10 yards to all but settle an enthralling night.

It was a record embellished four minutes from time when Peter Lovenkrands swept home a Kevin Nolan cross to seal Shearer’s first victory as Newcastle manager and a first at home since before Christmas to confirm their elevation out of the bottom three, at the expense of Hull.

With single points of little use, the shackles were always going to be cast off. But given both sides’ problems in front of goal, it still came as something of a shock both were on the scoresheet in the opening nine minutes.

In Afonso Alves and Marvin Emnes Gareth Southgate had confounded almost all predictions by naming a starting forward line with just a single Premier League goal since October.

That was soon forgotten, as Tuncay Sanli, who started wide on the left in a reshuffled midfield, reacted first to latch onto Alves’ slide-rule ball into the box. Steve Harper was out smartly to block the Turkey international’s low shot, but there was little Habib Beye could do as the loose ball struck the back-tracking defender 10 yards out before rolling into the unguarded net.

Crucially, Middlesbrough failed to hold the lead sufficiently for the home fans’ frustrations to turn on the Newcastle players. Viduka saw a close range effort strike the post with Jones beaten as the hosts gave notice of intent, and within six minutes of going behind they were level.

It came from the head of Steven Taylor, who lost his marker Bates to meet Guthrie’s out-swinging corner to send a powerful, though deftly angled, effort past Jones.

Both sides should have added to their tally before the interval. It took a wonderful fingertip save from Jones to divert Owen’s glancing header from Mark Viduka’s cross to prevent the hosts taking the lead midway through the half. The less effective side of Viduka’s game was soon in evidence at the other end, when the former Boro forward lost possession on the edge of his own box, allowing Emnes to test Harper with a low 20-yard snapshot which the keeper was equal to. But the rebound fell invitingly for Emnes to finish off the task on his first Premier League start. However, the Dutchman slid his effort narrowly past the post.

The second half brought fewer clear openings, although the contest remained compulsive viewing.

O’Neil’s stinging effort from just inside the area came close, but Harper did enough to ensure that Martins’ crucial late intervention was enough to win it, while Lovenkrands’ was simply the icing on the cake.

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-2) Harper 8; Beye 7, S Taylor 7, Bassong 6, Duff 6; Gutierrez 6 (Lovenkrands 65, 7), Butt 6, Nolan 6, Guthrie 6; Owen 5 (Martins 70, 5), Viduka 6 (Carroll 87, 5).

MIDDLESBROUGH (4-4-2) Jones 7; Hoyte 6, Bates 6, Huth, Taylor 6 (Johnson 76, 5); Downing 5, O’Neil 6, Shawky 3 (Aliadiere 69, 6), Tuncay 6; Alves 6 (King 36, 4), Emnes 7.