In an effort to demonstrate that his team have been making progress, Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce insists recent performances have improved, but the result was all they had to be proud of yesterday. Just when the Tyneside club’s midweek revival looked destined to be exposed as a false dawn, Habib Beye’s late winner provided them with their first win in seven matches.

After a draw with Arsenal was supposed to have put the worst behind them, Newcastle contrived to make hard work of opponents who did not deserve to lose. In the final minute of a second half in which Alex McLeish’s side called most of the shots, Emre swung in a hopeful corner to the front post, and Beye darted in ahead of Sebastian Larsson to divert the ball over the line. What the new Birmingham manager had inflicted on Spurs a week before, he had now fallen victim to, and the prospect of more dissent from Newcastle’s fans was averted.

The fervour with which the Geordie nation follows its team can be both a boost and a burden. Against more fancied opposition, such as Arsenal in midweek, it serves to galvanise them, but when the likes of Birmingham come along, the backdrop manifests itself as pressure. The visitors’ Gary McSheffrey had warned that were Newcastle to concede an early goal, the raucous encouragement from which they benefited three days earlier would quickly turn to abuse.

The theory was tested after just nine minutes. That the breakthrough should be attributed to another of the home side’s frequent defensive mistakes put paid to the notion that Allardyce had shored up his porous back line. When Rafael Schmitz hurled a long pass from deep in his own half, David Rozenahl failed to utilise the ball’s ample air time, and somehow hesitated long enough to let Cameron Jerome take control. The 21-year-old lone striker for Birmingham calmly rounded the goalkeeper and slipped it over the line.

There was bewilderment in the stands as a stunned home side struggled to respond, and although they came good towards the end of a rainswept first half, it was only after a slice of fortune. The catalyst appeared to be an injury to Nicky Butt, which forced Allardyce to bring on Mark Viduka in his place, and a penalty that only just crossed the line. It was a spot-kick all right, Mathew Sadler caught Obafemi Martins with a trailing leg, but when the Nigerian smacked his shot towards the bottom right-hand corner, Maik Taylor pushed it on to the post. As the goalkeeper turned to assess the damage, the ball was trickling over the line. It was Newcastle’s first penalty this season, and it looked like it.

To their credit, the fans had stuck with Newcastle who showed in what remained of the opening period that they were worthy of the equaliser.

Although Jerome again tested Shay Given with a snap-shot, it was the Birmingham goal that was under threat. A flurry of activity just before the break ought to have earned Newcastle a second, but James Milner was twice denied, first by the goalkeeper, and then by the woodwork. Although he should have connected better with a cross from Charles N’Zogbia, a lack of conviction that allowed Taylor to tip over, the midfielder was unfortunate to see his 20-yarder come down off the crossbar. Newcastle, though, were as nervous in the opening stages of the second half as they had been in the first. The same Birmingham XI that had defeated Spurs in McLeish’s first match again showed the kind of ambition that was too often lacking under Steve Bruce.

Larsson, scorer of a wonderful winner at White Hart Lane, could have put the visitors in front after exchanging passes with Jerome, but with a defender closing him down, he blazed the chance high and wide. Then Jerome demonstrated his searing pace with a burst past Steven Taylor’s leaden legs, and a cutback that Rozehnal did well to intercept.

All of which inspired the Midlands side, who were able to boast not only a swift counter-attack, but the bulk of possession.

Apart from a shot sliced wide by Alan Smith, after a flick by Joey Barton, there was precious little to lift a disillusioned home support. Only the replacement of Geremi with Emre, 19 minutes from the end, relieved the familiar drone of anxiety that seems to pervade St James’ these days. There seemed to be a helplessness about the home cause, which was reflected in Barton’s late booking, the least he deserved for a cynical lunge as Jerome left him for dead.

Relief, though, came from an unlikely source. Beye had not scored in nearly two years. He knows how to pick his moments.

Player ratings

Newcastle: Given 6, Beye 7, Rozehnal 5, S Taylor 5, N’Zogbia 6, Geremi 6 (Emre 71min), Butt 4 (Viduka 30min, 6), Barton 7, Milner 8, Martins 6 (Enrique 90min), Smith 6.

Birmingham: M Taylor 7, Kelly 6, Ridgewell 6, Schmitz 7, Sadler 6, De Ridder 6 (Forssell 76min), Muamba 6, Larsson 6, Nafti 6, McSheffrey 6 (Kapo 62min), Jerome 8

Scorers: Newcastle: Martins 37 pen, Beye 90. Birmingham: Jerome 9