Newcastle United 0-1 Blackburn Rovers

Charlie Mulgrew's goal against Newcastle was his first for Blackburn since he joined the Championship side from Celtic in August

Championship strugglers Blackburn stunned Newcastle United as Charlie Mulgrew's winner ended the leaders' run of nine successive victories.

Boss Rafael Benitez made six changes as the Magpies looked for a club-record 10th straight win in all competitions.

Danny Graham tested Newcastle goalkeeper Karl Darlow with the first half's only shot on target.

Rovers keeper Jason Steele denied Jonjo Shelvey and Ciaran Clark before Mulgrew won it with a close-range volley.

Newcastle - who had beaten Leeds 2-0 a week earlier to equal a club record run of nine wins, set in 1994 under Kevin Keegan - looked disjointed in the first half and failed to create a significant chance.

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They were more industrious after the break, with Christian Atsu volleying wide, Isaac Hayden going close and Matt Ritchie firing over before Shelvey called Steele into action for the first time and Clark tested the keeper from the resulting corner.

Blackburn, a club that won the Premier League title in the same season that Newcastle set their consecutive wins record, produced just two shots on target. Mulgrew's acrobatic left-foot finish from Liam Feeney's cross was enough to earn all three points and move the visitors out of the relegation places.

Top scorer Dwight Gayle came off the bench for the Magpies, but could only shoot over the bar when a chance presented itself in stoppage time.

Newcastle's defeat was soured further as full-back Jesus Gamez, making his first league start since moving to St James' Park from Atletico Madrid in July, lasted just 55 minutes before leaving the field injured on a stretcher.

Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez:

"I didn't like our reaction when we were losing, and we have to do better. I didn't like the chances we didn't take, and I didn't like my decisions.

"But we cannot change things. We have to analyse what happened before the next game and make sure we don't make the same mistakes.

"I knew that when you lose a game and you change your players, everyone blames the manager. I knew that, but in the same time we have to show more character and more personality."

Blackburn manager Owen Coyle:

"There is a lot of perception in football and people see the table and think Blackburn are a poor team; nothing could be further from the truth.

"We took two points from our first seven games and there was a lot going on at the club. From there after, I think that is now 17 points from 11 games and that is close to play-off form.

"We stuck to the game-plan, we asked them to stand toe-to-toe, we marked them man-for-man all over the park. We knew we would have to do a lot of dirty work."