Christmas came early for Alexander Isak. With the yellow match ball tucked under his arm, Newcastle United's hat-trick hero was greeted by a round of applause and a chorus of whoops as he strolled into the away dressing room following the Magpies' 4-0 win against Ipswich Town.

Isak, in the process, became the first Newcastle player since 2019 to score three goals in a single game and this Portman Road rout capped a memorable week for Eddie Howe's team. Seventh-placed Newcastle have now moved within just a point of freefalling champions Manchester City and reached the Carabao Cup semi-finals following dominant wins against Ipswich, Brentford and Leicester City.

There are sterner tests to come and no one was getting carried away on Saturday, which feels ominous for Newcastle's rivals. Just ask fellow goal scorer Jacob Murphy, who scored the visitors' second goal.

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"We still have a lot more that we want to do," he told BBC Radio Newcastle before games against Aston Villa and Manchester United. "We're not going to get ahead of ourselves. I'm definitely going to make sure that the boys are staying calm. We've not done anything yet. We've not cracked it."

The challenge now, of course, is to back this result up. Just as Newcastle did at Ipswich after defeating Brentford and Leicester City at home.

The squad spoke before the trip to Portman Road about how they needed to play with the same energy and intensity that they did at St James' Park. Newcastle certainly did that against Ipswich after winning a whopping 40 duels. As midfielder Sandro Tonali put it: "Home or away, we fight like hell for this jersey."

Newcastle, in the process, recorded their biggest away win of the season and inflicted Ipswich's heaviest defeat of the campaign. For context, Ipswich's previous three losses had only been by a single goal. This was a side who won at Spurs and who claimed a deserved point against Manchester United yet Newcastle tore the Tractor Boys apart. No wonder Kieran McKenna could not help but pay tribute. "They hit a really high level," the Ipswich boss said.

It was the sort of performance Newcastle produced on a number of occasions on the road on the way to qualifying for the Champions League a couple of seasons ago. Who could forget those big wins against Fulham, Southampton, Leicester City, West Ham and Everton at crucial junctures of the season? The challenge now, like that memorable campaign, is for Howe's team to string a run of results together.

"The last time we did that was the Champions League qualification season where we were able to have six or seven consecutive wins," Howe said. "They are the runs that transform your league position. Of course that's what we're looking for."

Three successive wins in all competitions at least felt like a start. After all, this 4-0 victory was by no means a foregone conclusion.

Newcastle have traditionally been slow starters away from home this season - going behind in three of their previous four away games - and Bournemouth, Wolves, Fulham, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Brentford had all taken the lead inside the opening 37 minutes against the Magpies. However, it was Ipswich who sleepwalked into this game.

Ipswich, remarkably, put the ball out of play from their own kick-off and Newcastle made the sluggish hosts pay. In fact, there were just 26 seconds on the clock when the visitors went ahead.

Fabian Schar's searching ball sent Jacob Murphy galloping down the right channel and Sam Morsy could only clear the forward's cross as far as Alexander Isak, who volleyed the ball into the ground. Although Muric got a hand to the ball, the Ipswich goalkeeper could not keep it out.

It was far from a false start. With Ipswich left-back Leif Davis rampaging forward, Newcastle had space to exploit and, this time, Sandro Tonali clipped the ball down the right for Murphy to run on to. Murphy managed to squeeze a cross to the back post, but Anthony Gordon could only head over the bar following a nudge from Harry Clarke.

Newcastle continued to push for that crucial second goal and the black-and-whites had a huge chance to double their advantage midway through the first half. Morsy's attempted ball to Omari Hutchinson was intercepted by Tonali inside the centre circle and the Italy international found Murphy, who looked up and threaded the ball through to send Isak one-on-one with Muric. However, Isak could only scoop the ball into the Ipswich goalkeeper's gloves.

Would Newcastle live to regret that miss? Not against Ipswich. The Magpies were soon 2-0 up. Isak fed Gordon inside the box and the forward cut inside, skipped away from four Ipswich players and picked out the unmarked Murphy at the back post. Murphy took a touch before lashing the ball in off the crossbar.

Newcastle were not finished yet, though, and it got even better for Howe's team just before half-time. With seconds remaining of the half, Muric attempted to play the ball short to Jens Cajuste inside his own box, but Bruno read the situation. The Newcastle captain harried Cajuste and knocked the ball to Isak. The calm Swede could not miss this time.

Dominant Newcastle merely picked up from where they left off after the break - Bruno's header struck the post following a flowing move - and Howe's team grabbed an inevitable fourth in the 52nd minute. It looked like Cameron Burgess had the situation under control, after taking the ball away from Isak, but Murphy nipped in to win it back and weaved away from a crowd of blue shirts before teeing Isak up with an outrageous back heel. The striker prodded the ball into the bottom corner to score his first hat-trick for the club and get this festive season off to the merriest of starts for Geordies.