Newcastle blew Leicester City away with three first-half goals to inflict a miserable 3-0 defeat on the Foxes who moved a step closer to suffering relegation from the Premier League.
The Magpies flexed their muscles in front of Championship-bound Leicester in a ruthless start to boost their hopes of returning to the Champions League by moving level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea.
Jacob Murphy set the tone for the evening when he tapped in with 113 seconds on the clock and he grabbed his brace when he knocked in the rebound after Fabian Schar struck the crossbar from inside his own half.
Many of the Leicester fans who decided to turn up seemingly headed early for the exit doors when Harvey Barnes haunted his old club with the third goal on his return to leave Leicester 15 points adrift of safety with seven games to go.
Leicester last scored in front of their own fans against Brighton on December 8 and drawing another blank meant they became the first side in Football League history to lose eight home league games in a row without scoring a goal.
And manager Ruud van Nistelrooy failed to confirm whether he remains committed to Leicester after he guided the club to their worst losing run in history.
The Foxes boss said: “It’s very disappointing and if I speak for myself, with the intent to bring the club forward, so far it didn’t work and tried different things and structures without results.
“It’s clear what the most important thing, it’s this club and what’s best for this club and that’s also what we need to discuss.
“I think for now it’s been such a bad run of games, not getting results and not scoring goals for me it’s time to recover from this first before I can say anything else.”
