The Day Ashley's World Fell Apart!

With Ashley and executive director (football) Dennis Wise nowhere to be seen, it was left to managing director Derek Llambias, the man with whom Kevin Keegan held heated discussions before his resignation, to bear the brunt of a concerted backlash.

Events off the pitch were not helped by events on it for the home side as a promising start was ripped apart by Marlon King's 34th-minute penalty, and by the time King doubled his tally nine minutes after the break, they were in meltdown.

Debutant Xisco pulled a goal back nine minutes from time, but there was to be no salvation on a day when emotions ran high on Tyneside.

The resumption of talks between Ashley and Keegan overnight had given fresh, if unlikely, cause for optimism, but it is hard to see why the 57-year-old would want to wade back into the mess which has engulfed the club he loves in recent weeks.

The Geordie faithful arrived at St James' Park in numbers long before kick-off as planned protests against Ashley and Wise provided the back-drop to the game.

Thousands of fans turned up to voice their support for Keegan carrying banners which left observers in little doubt as to where their loyalties lay, among them "Wise up, drink up, sell up", "Ashley and the Wise guy out" and "I'm only here to support my team".

Once inside the stadium, it was the latter sentiment which came to the fore as the supporters got behind the patched-up side caretaker boss Chris Hughton was able to send out.

Shay Given was beaten with 11 minutes of the first half remaining after Nicky Butt slid in to try to block Peter Halmosi's cross and his momentum carried him into the Hull man.

Referee Andre Marriner pointed to the spot and although Given got his hand to King's penalty, he could not keep it out of the bottom corner.

The teams returned to find the crowd applauding warmly as a banner demanding "Cockney mafia out" was paraded around the stadium.

The mood turned ugly once again when City attacked on the counter and found the home defence in tatters.

King ran on to Halmosi's through-ball and after cutting inside the recovering N'Zogbia, curled a left-foot shot past Given to make it 2-0.

Newcastle's efforts to get themselves back into the game were laboured, but they pulled a goal back nine minutes from time when N'Zogbia's shot came back off the post and Xisco converted the rebound.

But the fightback fizzled out and Danny Guthrie's misery was complete when he was sent off for a late challenge on Craig Fagan.

Att: 50,242