Newcastle 2-1 West Brom

Newcastle celebrate Papiss Cisse's winner

Papiss Cisse's deflected injury-time winner gave Newcastle a barely deserved Premier League victory against West Bromwich Albion at St James' Park.

Sammy Ameobi's hopeful shot hit the back of an oblivious Cisse and flew past stranded away keeper Ben Foster.

Romelu Lukaku's header looked to have maintained Albion's fine start to the season, equalising Demba Ba's volley.

But Cisse's first league goal of the season helped Newcastle move into the top half with a first win in five.

It left eighth-placed Albion still searching for their first away win of the campaign, despite their best start to a top-flight season since 1983.

Meanwhile Cisse, who scored 13 goals in his first 14 Premier League matches last season, will be hoping the lucky break can help him rediscover his goalscoring touch.

Albion boss Steve Clarke watched his attack-minded side succumb to two late goals in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester City last weekend, but promised his side would retain their offensive outlook on Tyneside.

And they looked more likely to go on and score a second-half winner than their hosts, who lacked creativity and too often carelessly gave away possession.

Despite making nine changes from Thursday's Europa League win against Club Bruges, Newcastle looked like a team which was mentally tired following their midweek outing.

Belgium international Lukaku was making only his second top-flight start for the Baggies, in place of top scorer Shane Long, after impressing in a substitute appearance last weekend.

And the on-loan Chelsea striker repaid Clarke's faith with a powerful performance against the Magpies.

He was a constant menace to the home defence and, despite passing up two glorious first-half opportunities when he was denied by home keeper Tim Krul, levelled after he was picked out by Zoltan Gera's delightful chip.

It had been Newcastle who, after a sedate start, carved out the first chance of the game when Shola Ameobi flighted a lovely curling cross into the path of strike partner Ba, who planted a diving far-post header wide.

But Senegal striker Ba did manage to grab his seventh goal in nine Premier League games this season before half-time.

It came from a 'route one' move, Krul's goal-kick flicked on by Shola Ameobi, and helped on further by Gareth McAuley's wayward header into the path of Ba, who spun smartly to volley past Foster.

Albion always looked to threaten on the counter-attack and could have had the opener themselves before Ba struck.

They poured forward quickly following a Newcastle corner and Lukaku, who raced on to a well weighted through-ball from Graham Dorrans, drew an instinctive save from Krul.

Moments later, he again failed to beat the Dutch keeper in another one-on-one.

Lukaku was replaced by Long midway through the second half and the Republic of Ireland striker twice came close to scoring from low crosses before Albion were hit by Cisse's lucky late winner.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew:

"You've got to feel for West Brom today because they have played well. I thought first half we just shaded it and second half we lost our way.

"But our work rate was great and in the end we got a break. To be honest we haven't had too many breaks this season. We've had a lot of injuries and haven't moaned about it.

"This Thursday to Sunday run is proving difficult. We got tired because of our efforts this week. We make a lot of changes but it is still has an effect emotionally."

West Bromwich Albion head coach Steve Clarke:

"I certainly didn't think it would be a game we were going to lose. I thought we had good control in the first half and created good chances.

"I felt we were unfortunate to be behind at half-time. It was a horrible moment, a big deflection in injury time and it's in the back of the net.

"After the late goals we conceded last week [in the defeat by Manchester City], it's hard to take."

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