Shearer on target as Magpies beat Pompey

Newcastle 3 Portsmouth 0

Alan Shearer collected the 230th goal of his Premiership career as Newcastle crusied to a fifth successive victory over Portsmouth.

The 33-year-old converted a 27th-minute penalty to double his side’s lead 10 minutes after Gary Speed had fired home his first goal of the season on an afternoon when the Magpies once again justified their entertainers tag.

Shola Ameobi, who turned in perhaps his best senior display to date, capped his afternoon by claiming the third with a looping 61st-minute header to cement Newcastle’s march up the league table.

Newcastle were simply too strong for Pompey, who battled manfully throughout but forced only one save and one further moment of discomfort for Shay Given, both courtesy of Shearer’s former England strike-partner Teddy Sheringham.

Things could hardly have gone better for Bobby Robson as Lee Bowyer and Laurent Robert both turned in high-octane displays, and Ameobi fully deserved the rapturous reception he received when he was replaced by Lomana LuaLua with 10 minutes remaining.

Newcastle went into the game on the back of successive victories over Southampton, NAC Breda, Middlesbrough and Fulham, a run characterised by an improvement in form which reached encouraging proportions in adversity at Loftus Road.

However, the St James’ Park faithful, with the notable exception of the 5-0 UEFA Cup demolition of Breda, still had to be reminded of the free-flowing football of the last two seasons, and they arrived hopeful that this would be the day.

And they were not to be disappointed as a Newcastle line-up shorn of Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer and Nolberto Solano turned on the style in front of a crowd of 52,161.

Bellamy’s replacement Ameobi has had more than his fair share of criticism since stepping into the breech, but his display was full of adventure, skill and unselfish running, and that set the tone for his team.

With Bowyer seemingly growing in stature with every game and Robert in a rich vein of form, they took the game to Pompey from the off and stormed into a 2-0 lead within 27 minutes.

They might have got off the mark even more quickly had referee Paul Durkin seen Boris Zivkovic’s seventh-minute tackle on Shearer as a penalty, but his side had only 10 minutes further to wait for the opening goal.

Ameobi left Sebastien Schemmel in his wake down the left and pulled the ball back for Bowyer, who back-heeled it to Robert.

The Frenchman simply rolled a pass into the path of the fast-arriving Speed, who hammered a low right-foot shot past the helpless Shaka Hislop from the edge of the box.

Mr Durkin redeemed himself in the eyes of the home fans 10 minutes later when he did point to the spot after Dejan Stefanovic had handled Bowyer’s goal-bound effort, and for the second time in four days, Shearer stepped up to drive the ball home from 12 yards and make it 2-0.

Pompey, for whom Patrik Berger and Yakubu Ayegbeni were lively, had to wait until the 41st-minute to test Given, but his relative lack of action had done him no harm as he got down well to palm away Sheringham’s shot.

Newcastle continued to dominate after the break, although they were wasteful in the early stages to hand Pompey a glimmer of hope.

Steve Stone sent a dipping shot over on the hour after the impressive Berger had opened the door for him, but they fate was effectively sealed just seconds later.

Speed turned up on the right to send in a curling left-foot cross, and Ameobi stooped to get in front of Arjan de Zeeuw to loop a header up over Hislop and in off the underside of the bar.

Bowyer sent the Portsmouth keeper sprawling across his goal with a long-range header on 67 minutes, but as time ran down, the game began to resemble a pre-season friendly with the visitors attempting to limit the damage and United content with their lot.

Robson was able to enjoy the luxury of withdrawing Bowyer, Robert and Ameobi to give Darren Ambrose, Hugo Viana and LuaLua a late run-out, but the hard work had long been done.