Everton 1-4 Newcastle

&c

Finally, after seven long months, Newcastle won away in the league with a blistering debut performance at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

A common theme this season has been scoring early then sitting back until we concede, so optimism was cautious after the outstanding Malick Thiaw nodded home a corner after 52 seconds, especially at an Everton side who had won at Old Trafford with 10 men in their previous game and generally look much improved under Moyes.

However, this time we kept our foot on the gas, and there was joy and hilarity in equal measure as local lad Lewis Miley's shot from the edge of the box was parried through his own legs by pantomime dinosaur Jordan Pickford.

And we were in dreamland on the stroke of half time as great work from an improved Elanga down the right saw him feed Woltemade in the centre, and with Pickford racing out of his goal the zwei meter dribbelgott simply lofted the ball casually over his head.

Somewhere in my mind I thought I glimpsed a shadow of a memory of a Nordic striker scoring an audacious lob against West Ham, but- no, it's gone.

We weren't done there either, Thiaw scoring his second (of the game and his Newcastle career) just before the hour mark.

What a signing he's been.

There was still time for some slack marking to allow Dewsbury-Hall to score a tidy finish, but that couldn't take the gloss off a wonderful performance and result.

Let's hope the away day curse is broken.