It was will be considered the bench-mark for the campaign, Newcastle delivered a thundering message to the rest of Premier League with a 3-0 demolition of Portsmouth at Fratton Park. With the victory the Magpies roar out of the relegation zone and sit in fourteenth spot with nineteen points.Prior the break Shay Given displayed an uncanny ability keeping Pompey off the score-sheet, with Jermain Defoe in particular wondering what he needs to do to get one past the Republic of Ireland 'keeper. As the story so often goes, Portsmouth will rue those missed opportunities as six minutes after the break Jonás Gutiérrez intercepted a ball in the final third of the pitch and played the ball into Michael Owen who sent the ball over a onrushing David James. Portsmouth finishing woes continued but Obafemi Martins made no mistakes with thirteen minutes remaining as José Enrique provided him a point-blank opportunity that he made no mistake on. The perfect finish came as Danny Guthrie poached on a rebound off Shola Ameobi's cross with a minute left in regulation, bringing the match to a wondrous 3-0 conclusion.
Following the match, Joe Kinnear said:
"That was certainly one of our best performances in my time here.
"We've now had three clean sheets in our last three away games when you think of the draws at Chelsea and Middlesbrough so we are making ourselves very difficult to beat.
"I felt we bossed the game for long periods and I was disappointed at half-time when it was still goalless and we were coming back into the dressing room with nothing to show for all our efforts.
"But the lads stuck at it and you could see the confidence growing.
"We upped the tempo in the second half. I always felt we had more pace around the team than they did and thankfully we took the opportunities when they came in the second half.
"Scoring three goals away from home is great, especially when you consider Portsmouth is not an easy place to come to. It must be a very, very long time since a team came to Fratton Park and won by three clear goals.
"Before the game people were making a lot of the fact we hadn't won away from home in the league this season and that we hadn't won at Portsmouth in the Premier League, so it's nice to put both of those to bed."
Newcastle returns to action next Sunday as they welcome Tottenham to St James' Park.
