Newcastle cruised to a 4-0 victory over Leicester at St James’ Park to end a run of four games without a win.
A rampant Newcastle claimed their first victory in a month with a Jacob Murphy Brace and goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak giving Ruud van Nistelrooy his first defeat as Leicester boss.
In turning in Anthony Gordon’s drag back from the edge of the area, Murphy’s 30-minute opener atoned for his glaring miss just moments before when he curled an effort well wide from inside the box.
Leicester were forced into a change at the break with Mads Hermansen, who had made an excellent stop to keep out Gordon just seven minutes in, replaced by Danny Ward. From there, the floodgates opened.
Ward’s first two touches of the ball came when he had to pick the ball out of his own net after just five minutes of play in the second half following a quickfire double with Isak scoring moments after Guimaraes doubled Newcastle’s lead.
Murphy added a fourth for the Magpies when he hammered home an effort after being fed in by Isak on the edge of the area.
Eddie Howe’s side move up into 11th place, level on points with Brentford and four points off top four while defeat for Leicester means they are four points above the drop zone.
Gordon the heartbeat of Newcastle’s victory
Anthony Gordon impressed against Leicester
When Gordon drove down the left, cut in and wrapped an effort towards goal just seven minutes in, St James’ Park knew they were witnessing a player who was intent on leaving a stamp on the game.
A strong reaction save from Hermansen denied him a goal on that occasion, but his efforts to lift Newcastle out of a winless mire couldn’t be stopped. Everything good Newcastle produced was sparked by Gordon’s industry.
He set up Murphy’s first goal, but outside of that, he remained a constant nuisance across the pitch with relentless pressing and carrying.
Howe: The win had a bit of everything
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe:
“It’s a big win for a lot of reasons. It was important we responded to the Brentford performance in the right way. I thought we looked engaged, mentally switched on and able to give both a technical and athletic performance. The win had a bit of everything.
“There was a lot of pressure on the players today. That wasn’t lost on me. Everything was set up today for us to answer a lot of questions but you’ve still got to deliver when you’re playing against a very dangerous team under a new manager.
“It was a great response in that pressurised moment and it’s a good sign for us mentally because you’ve got to deal with that pressure.”
Ruud: Details let us down
Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy:
“The dominance of Newcastle was clear. The team tried and did their best. The game was decided in details, the first one was a set-piece. The second one, straight after half-time. If you want to have a chance with the result, you have to take care of these things. If not it’s going to be a really hard afternoon.
On Mads Hermansen’s halftime withdrawal:
“He felt some pain in his groin so he couldn’t continue, we have to asses it. He was certain that he couldn’t continue the game as he didn’t want to make it worse.”
