Newcastle held on with nine men for the final 11 minutes as they beat Southampton 3-2 in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Miguel Almiron was the Magpies hero scoring twice in match that saw midfielder Jeff Hendrick sent off shortly after the interval and Fabian Schar forced off through injury after they had made all three substitutes.
Southampton went into the match looking to bounce back from their second 9-0 defeat in two seasons, while Newcastle were trying to address their recent form of one win in their last six games.
The south coast club welcomed back Jannick Vestergaard and Oriol Romeu from injury while Nathan Redmond also starte. Recent loan signing from Liverpool, Takumi Minamino, also made it into the first XI as they looked to add some creativity to the squad that had lacked goals in recent games.
Newcastle also made changes bringing in Allan Saint-Maximin and their Arsenal loanee Joe Willock as they also tried to add some magic themselves after losing at home to Crystal Palace.
Newcastle striker Callum Wilson saw two early chances fall his way but failed to capitalise with a tight offside and a miskicked volley. Southampton also saw a penalty appeal waved off due to Danny Ings being offside in the build-up.
In the 16th minute, Newcastle opened the scoring, Saint-Maximin brought down a long ball and skipped past Jan Bednarek allowing him to drive into the box before cutting it back to give Willock a tap in on his debut.
Ings had a chance to level the score in the 24th minute when he was played into the box by Che Adams but took one to many touches, making the angle too tight for himself meaning he fired his shot straight at the keeper.
Newcastle then doubled their lead via an Almiron strike which took a big deflection off a static Bednarek giving Alex McCarthy no chance of saving it and giving Newcastle a two-goal lead.
Three minutes later the Southampton loanee Minamino received the ball on the edge of the box enabling him to take a touch into the box and smash the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle and getting the saints back into the game.
Right on the stroke of half-time McCarthy gifted the ball to Almiron with a sloppy pass who was able to run into the box and calmly finish into the bottom corner and send Newcastle 3-1 up at half-time.
One minute into the second-half Newcastle had the chance to put the game to bed when Allan Saint-Maximin cut the ball back to Jonjo Shelvey eight yards out but he scuffed the ball and sent the shot wide of the post.
Two minutes later Adams won a foul on the edge of the Newcastle box. James Ward-Prowse lined it up and delivered a picture-perfect free-kick into the top right corner giving goalkeeper Karl Darlow no chance of stopping and getting the Saints just one goal behind once again.
Newcastle were then reduced to 10 men when Hendrick pulled down Minamino. He was shown his second yellow of the game leaving his team in a difficult position for the remainder of the game.
Southampton had all the possession with Newcastle pinned in their own half and big chances falling to Vetergaard and Ings who struck against the post to deny him a goal.
Saints also had the ball in the net in the 65th minute but it was ruled out for offside on Ings.
Bednarek almost saw his second red card in three days when he blocked Almiron from running past him, but VAR saw no problem and only a yellow Card was shown.
Newcastle were then reduced to nine men with Schar being forced off with a knee injury and Newcastle had no subs left.
For the remainder of the game Southampton failed to create any clear chances although having all the possession and a two-man advantage but Newcastle hung onto their one-goal lead and to the three points.
The win means that Newcastle moved up to 16th in the table and 11 points clear of the relegation zone giving them a much-needed boost as they look forward to their game against Chelsea on February 15.
The result for Southampton means that they have now lost five consecutive Premier League games and with a tough run of matches coming up they will be hoping to end their poor run and stay in the top-half of the table.
By Evan Clem
