Newcastle surge continues

Newcastle - Newcastle United climbed to eighth place in the Premier League table after beating Norwich City 2-1 at St James' Park on Saturday to record a third consecutive victory.

Loic Remy opened the scoring in the second minute with his eighth goal in eight league games and his fellow Frenchman Yoan Gouffran added a second before Leroy Fer replied for Norwich.

Having previously beaten Chelsea 2-0 and won 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur, Alan Pardew's Newcastle are now just a point outside the Champions League places.

Former Newcastle manager Chris Hughton, meanwhile, saw his Norwich side slip to 16th, one point above the relegation zone.

Newcastle made one change to the team that had beaten Spurs, with Fabricio Coloccini replacing the suspended Mathieu Debuchy, while Bradley Johnson and Nathan Redmond came into the Norwich starting XI.

Norwich were bidding to build on their 3-1 win over West Ham United in their previous outing, but they were behind inside two minutes, with Remy nodding home at the far post from a Yohan Cabaye corner.

Redmond blazed over as Norwich pushed for an immediate response, but Newcastle were quickly back on the attack.

Cheick Tiote shot over the bar from distance, Remy sliced wide, and Moussa Sissoko spurned a good opportunity when he dragged an effort off target from Shola Ameobi's pass.

Norwich came within inches of claiming an equaliser in the 32nd minute when Anthony Pilkington sent a looping header inches wide, and six minutes later, Newcastle struck again.

From Sissoko's floated right-wing cross, Ameobi saw his header parried by Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy, but Gouffran was on hand to scramble in the rebound from close range.

The hosts almost put the game to bed shortly before half-time, with Ruddy forced to produce a flying stop to repel a thunderous drive by Ameobi.

Norwich lost Pilkington to an apparent hamstring injury early in the second period, but they reduced the arrears with 10 minutes remaining through a bullet header from Fer.

Newcastle substitute Papiss Cisse thought he had restored his side's two-goal cushion, only for his effort to be ruled out for offside, but the one-goal margin ultimately proved sufficient.