Not Best start for Hughes

Leon Best's sublime first-half effort for Newcastle ensured Mark Hughes failed to find the start he was looking for as Queens Park Rangers manager.

Ba's replacement does the business at St James' Park

Newcastle United ensured Mark Hughes failed to find the start he was looking for as Queens Park Rangers manager as Leon Best's sublime first-half effort separated the two sides at St James' Park. A game that started promisingly before fading into a contest of mediocrity saw Newcastle earn a three-point haul that takes them up to sixth courtesy of a moment of magic from Best out of keeping with much that followed or preceded it. A sweeping Newcastle move on 37 minutes saw the ball moved from left to right as Ryan Taylor's stabbed pass to Best saw Demba Ba's replacement demonstrate there is life beyond the Senegal striker as his exquisite turn bamboozled Luke Young before a composed finish flashed past Paddy Kenny. Prior to Best's standout effort, QPR had conjured the best opportunities as Shaun Wright-Phillips' opportunistic snapshot from range fizzed off the top of the bar before Jay Bothroyd clipped a post with a cute effort from the edge of the box. Pre-match chat from Loftus Road had seen Mark Hughes talk of a long-term vision of winning the Premier League with QPR; on this showing retaining their top-flight status would in itself be a noticeable achievement. Rangers had more than enough chances to get something out of the contest though after creating a host of chances, which were either squandered or repelled by goalkeeper Tim Krul on an afternoon when the Magpies turned in an unconvincing performance against the 18th-placed visitors.

Injury worry

However, Alan Pardew's men, who lost key midfielder Yohan Cabaye to a worrying ankle injury in the first half, just about did enough to emerge with the points after claiming a fourth win in five games in all competitions in front of a crowd of 49,865. Hughes arrived on Tyneside having inherited a side which had not won in nine games in all competitions and had taken just two of the last 24 points on offer, and faced the task of overcoming a team which had comprehensively beaten champions Manchester United last time out. However, the early signs were positive, even without suspended skipper and former Magpies midfielder Joey Barton, the injured Alejandro Faurlin and African Nations Cup absentees Armand Traore and Adel Taarabt. QPR enjoyed much the better of the opening stages with Krul saving from Heidar Helguson and Akos Buzsaky inside the opening six minutes. Newcastle were unable to get out of their own half and with wide-men Wright-Phillips and Jamie Mackie forcing a series of errors from full-backs Danny Simpson and Davide Santon, Krul's goal came under repeated threat. Indeed, Wright-Phillips clipped the crossbar after capitalising on a 16th minute mistake by Simpson to leave the home fans less than impressed. However, the flow of the game was to change as the game reached the 20-minute mark, and it did so as Cabaye, whose central midfield partnership with Cheick Tiote has been one of the features of the Magpies' season, left the field on a stretcher with what looked like a nasty ankle injury after an uncompromising challenge by Shaun Derry. Even as Pardew urged Hatem Ben Arfa to hurry up on the sidelines to replace his compatriot, the 10 men responded to finally pin the visitors back.

Close call

Ben Arfa, whose stunning strike last weekend revived the Magpies' FA Cup campaign, eventually emerged from the dugout to warm applause,