NEWCASTLE UNITED chairman Freddy Shepherd’s assertion that the appointment of the club’s next manager will be essential to maintain a place among the Premiership’s leading clubs might raise a few eyebrows beyond the Tyne, given their struggle to escape the bottom half of the table.

Another season of underachievement has left Newcastle among the also-rans, yet Tottenham Hotspur will vouch for the promise that remains to be tapped into after their Champions League aspirations were dealt a painful blow.

Tottenham captain Robbie Keane might point to two strikes against the woodwork to illustrate the fine line between success and failure, but there was more than the width of a post separating the sides yesterday as Newcastle’s slump ended with one of their best performances of the campaign.

The revival engineered by caretaker manager Glenn Roeder had foundered in recent weeks on the back of defeats to the Premiership’s top three, as well as away to Charlton last Sunday, but Newcastle’s return to St James’ Park for the first time since Chelsea effectively ended their season by knocking them out of the FA Cup could not have gone better.

Three goals in an inspired opening half-hour, interrupted only briefly by Keane’s equaliser, proved too much for Tottenham, whose fragile away form was badly exposed. Leaving the field with 10 men after Michael Dawson’s dismissal for two yellow cards was made worse only by the announcement of Arsenal’s crushing 5-0 win over Aston Villa.

Arsenal, as potential winners, threaten Tottenham’s Champions League participation on two fronts, but head coach Martin Jol did his best to put a gloss on a disappointing afternoon. “We are still in with a big chance,” he said. “It’s still the same position. Everybody below us would like to swap places.”

Tottenham’s England defender Ledley King was ruled out just before kick-off with a twisted ankle and it was pretty much downhill from there once Newcastle had given Anthony Gardner no time to settle by going ahead after only 66 seconds.

“Conceding a goal like we did in the first minute always makes it difficult,” Jol added. “We had the initiative for the whole of the second half. We did much better but you can’t give goals away like we did.”

Roeder had been repeating the same message during Newcastle’s barren run and, although his period in charge may have only a few games to run, his determination not to merely see out time was evident in his decision to drop Jean-Alain Boumsong for the first time in his chequered career at St James’s Park.

The result for the home side was a central defensive pairing of Craig Moore and Peter Ramage, which might have appealed to Keane and the recalled Mido had they not had to watch play unfold at the other end of the pitch, where Newcastle threatened to run amok.

Having put through his own goal a week previously, Lee Bowyer’s first “proper” league goal of the season gave his side the perfect start as he converted a low cross from Charles N’Zogbia.

Alan Shearer was thwarted by Dawson’s block before wasting the kind of heading chance he has made his name on and when Tottenham levelled against the run of play, Keane sharply nodding in his eighth goal in as many games from Aaron Lennon’s cross, the visiting side looked to have engineered an escape route.

Instead, Newcastle attacked with even greater zest and after Bowyer had dispossessed Michael Carrick with a superb tackle, Nolberto Solano let fly with a shot that was too powerful for Paul Robinson to hold, Shola Ameobi sliding in the loose ball.

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football