Newcastle United star hits back at critics as squad unearth cunning plans

Newcastle United stopped the rot with a 4-0 victory over Leicester City on a day in which questions were answered by Toon players.

The mauling of the Foxes sees Eddie Howe's side climb just one place to 11th but there are just five points between Newcastle and the Champions League places. In short, the Magpies are a good Christmas away from rejoining the chasing pack and thanks to goals from Jacob Murphy (2), Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak everything feels possible again at St James' Park after a win-less month.

Murphy could be seen screaming into the Gallowgate End shouting: "What?". Afterwards, he admitted that Newcastle players must learn to deal with the noise.

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He said: "There's a lot of noise sometimes, but one win can change things. We just need to pick up the points and the table looks a lot different now. I said in an interview a couple of weeks ago, we just need to be calm and level-headed. Never get too high or too low. We know the results will come."

This was a day when training ground routines worked a treat as the opening goal for Murphy came from a short corner routine involving Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon. A Gordon free-kick in the second half was then headed across goal for Bruno to head home an important second, much to the delight of set-piece master Tindall!

For Murphy, who put in his best display of the season, coming off to a standing ovation must have been music to his ears.

It's easy to forget that Murphy had an incredible pre-season last summer but has struggled to transfer that on to the Premier League stage. That can't be aimed at the ex-Norwich winger in the last two games with two assists in the defeat at Brentford and then two goals against Leicester.

However, just like the team itself, Murphy must find that consistency and carry it through the festive period if Newcastle are to be genuine Euro challengers.

Eddie Howe's quiet "thank you" to supporters at the end of the game

For all the social media noise, the Newcastle supporters on the terraces and on away days have never once uttered anything negative towards Howe or his assistant Jason Tindall.

Yes, there were a few boos at his substitutions of Sandro Tonali in autumn and many voted for their feet at Brentford when walking out early. But there seems to be an unbelievable level of respect for Howe from the Toon Army.

As Howe's name was chanted towards the end of the win over Leicester with the team 4-0 up, he turned to the Gallowgate End and applauded in a nice moment as three points were banked. Howe's respect for the supporters was there for all to see.

Paul Mitchell the first to congratulate Howe and his coaching staff

The sporting director has already dismissed any talk of tension between himself and the coaching team. And it showed shortly after fans had filtered out of St James' Park to their favourite watering holes!

Both ex-Monaco supremo Mitchell and James Bunce made a beeline for the dressing rooms to share a big moment with the staff. Mitchell, unlike Bunce, stopped short of joining the celebrations on the team picture but he has now seen exactly what this team are short of and what they are capable of in the space of a month.

Finding new players will be tough but there is plenty to work with already at St James' Park. United just need some tweaking.