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.