Martins lifts the Toon

Newcastle 3 Middlesbrough 1:Obafemi Martins and Peter Lovenkrands came off the bench to lift spirits on Tyneside and give Newcastle hope of avoiding the drop from the Premier League at the expense of bitter rivals Middlesbrough. The Nigerian scored within a minute of replacing Michael Owen and his team-mate sealed the victory late on.

Alan Shearer's first win as manager lifts his side out of the bottom three and leaves Gareth Southgate and Boro staring at relegation with just two games remaining.

Boro had actually gone in front at St James's Park through a Habib Beye own goal in the third minute, but that was soon cancelled out by Steven Taylor's header.

The match began at a frenetic pace and it was Boro who drew first blood with a goal after just three minutes.

Magpies goalkeeper Steve Harper blocked Tuncay Sanli's shot at point-blank range from Afonso Alves' pass, only for the ball to ricochet against Habib Beye and trickle into his own net.

The Magpies' luck deserted them once again when Mark Viduka blasted an unstoppable sixth-minute shot against the post and Steven Taylor blazed the rebound high over.

But they were level three minutes later when the central defender met Danny Guthrie's right-wing corner with a superb header to make it 1-1.

After a lull in proceedings, keeper Brad Jones was called upon on 27 minutes when Owen got a flicked header to Viduka's driven cross, the Australian tipping it over at full stretch.

Emnes then saw a stinging shot well saved by Harper but the Dutchman should have done better with the rebound, which he placed wide.

Alves departed on a stretcher due to an ankle injury, with Marlon King replacing him. The substitute combined well with Emnes in the closing stages of the half but the sides went in level at the break.

Viduka's backheel across the face of goal and a Nicky Butt free-kick fired over were as close as the hosts came at the start of the second period.

Harper had to make an excellent save to keep Boro out on 57 minutes with his defence in tatters.

The Magpies completely lost their shape as Boro laid siege to their goal, and they looked certain to succeed when Gary O'Neil fired in a right-foot volley which the keeper parried as he dived to his right.

Newcastle were beginning to look short of ideas so Shearer threw on Peter Lovenkrands for Jonas Gutierrez. Shortly afterwards, he made another change - and it proved to be a masterstroke.

Owen seemed to accept his withdrawal with good grace and he could have no complaints as Martins found the net within a minute of coming on.

Viduka flicked on a header to Kevin Nolan - who was actually standing in an offside position - and his touch was seized upon by Martins, who found the net despite slipping over.