Newcastle provided absent manager Joe Kinnear with the perfect 'get well soon' present as they defeated Premier League relegation rivals West Brom 3-2 at The Hawthorns.
Kinnear was not present for Saturday's encounter after being taken to hospital due to illness ahead of the crucial fixture in the Midlands and assistant Chris Hughton was in charge.
The Magpies, though, showed no signs of missing their boss as they rushed into a lead in the opening 64 seconds against rock-bottom West Brom when Damien Duff took advantage of terrible defending from Leon Barnett to slot past Scott Carson.
However, West Brom - who could have overtaken their visitors with victory - immediately hit back as Newcastle's Steven Taylor slipped to allow Marc-Antoine Fortune to smash a fourth minute equaliser.
The scores remained level for only five minutes as Newcastle again took the lead when West Brom failed to clear and Peter Lovenkrands was allowed to hit his first goal for his new employers on his first start.
But that was not the end of the first-half action as, with four minutes remaining before the interval, Steven Taylor atoned for his earlier error when capitalising on more adrift Baggies defending to head in a corner from debutant Ryan Taylor.
Fortune set up a tense ending with West Brom's second on 74 minutes, but Tony Mowbray's side never truly looked capable of salvaging a point.
Newcastle got off to a dream start by taking the lead through the excellent Duff in only the second minute, following a mistake from Barnett.
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