Newcastle United 1 West Bromwich Albion 0: Mitrovic fires club out of bottom three

Steve McClaren's side beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 at St James's Park to move up to 17th place in the table.

Newcastle dominated the game from start to finish.

But they passed up chance after chance, and the match was decided by a first-half goal from Aleksandar Mitrovic, who had been recalled to the starting XI by head coach McClaren along with Cheick Tiote and Steven Taylor.

Tiote had had the ball in the net in the 29th minute, but the midfielder's strike from distance was controversially ruled out.

Mitrovic, stood in an offside position, had blocked goalkeeper Ben Foster's sightline.

Four minutes later, Jonjo Shelvey played in Mitrovic with a superb through ball, and the striker beat Foster with a neat finish.

West Brom head coach Tony Pulis brought on Saido Berahino for the second half.

But the striker, a £21million target for Newcastle in last month's transfer window, never got into one of the most one-sided games played at St James's Park in recent seasons.

Georginio Wijnaldum, Moussa Sissoko and Andros Townsend all had chances to extend United's lead.

But none of them could put the ball in the net.

However, Newcastle, for once, had made their own luck, and the win, and Norwich City's defeat at Aston Villa, saw the club climb out of the bottom three.

The only boos at the final whistle were from disgruntled West Brom fans unhappy with their team's performance.

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Elliot; Janmaat, Coloccini, Taylor, Aarons; Sissoko, Tiote, Shelvey (Saivet, 90), Townsend (Perez, 88); Wijnaldum; Mitrovic. Subs not used: Darlow, Gibson, Barlaser, Williams, Doumbia.

WEST BROMWICH ALBION: Foster; Olsson, Chester, Yacob, Gardner (Berahino, 46), Anichebe (Rondon, 74), McClean, McAuley, Fletcher, Dawson, Sandro (Pritchard, 46). Subs not used: Myhill; Pocognoli, Lambert, Sessegnon.

Goals: Mitrovic 33

Bookings: McAulay 48, Chester 63, Olsson 83

Referee: Lee Mason (Bolton)

Attendance: 50,152