49 mins James Milner received the ball down the right flank and with no preamble sent over a superlative cross for Obafemi Martins to leap ahead of Chambers and powerfully flick-head past Lee at the Leazes End. 1-0

57 mins Young's corner from the Strawberry corner was flicked on by Tommy Smith and fell to Frenchman Hameur Bouazza to help the ball past Given from point blank range. 1-1 

85 mins Substitute Damien Duff trundled down the left before centring for Obafemi Martins to seize on the ball and after what seemed an eternity, steady himself and crack it high into the Gallowgate End net, amidst audible relief. 2-1

Full time: Newcastle 2 Watford 1

Glenn Roeder said:

"He (Martins) was asked what shirt he wanted and he wanted to wear the number nine. 

"There was not any reason why he should not wear it. As we know, it is probably the most special shirt any Newcastle player could ever wear."

On the forthcoming transfer window:

"We mustn’t invest lots of money in players who bring nothing to the table."

On Luque, who left the ground before kickoff when not named in the 16:

"You're not going to lead me into a comment that will give you a headline - It's a fuss you want? It's a storm-out? You're looking for an angle but it's becoming boring.

"He was in the squad, but wasn’t selected as a substitute. There is nothing further to say.

"I don't think any of our fans would have felt better for seeing Albert sat in the stands - I could name two Chelsea players who weren't involved against us on Wednesday who I saw on their way home beforehand, and I didn't see Jose Mourinho making a big thing about it.

""At the start of the season, it’s fair to say the Newcastle fans did not see the best of Damien Duff. That has now changed. We have only lost two of the last 13 games. The atmosphere at the training ground is fantastic and Damien, like many of the other players over the last six weeks, has started to show the form we knew he could.

"He was doing very well at Arsenal before he damaged his cartilage, and he is now doing extra sessions in training.

"He is, like Jose said, an ultimate professional. If all players had Damien’s attitude and application, life would be a lot easier.

"I'm delighted with the three young defenders. I've had the chance to assess Steven Taylor and Peter Ramage a lot more since last February and I have confidence in them. It's amazing, you're not sure what to expect when putting a young player into the side. You ask yourself as a manager: `Are they really ready for first-team football?'

"When your hand's forced you have to give them an opportunity and keep your fingers crossed. All three have done an excellent job this week.

"Paul couldn't have had a tougher debut at Chelsea, a centre-back at full-back, but he handled Arjen Robben as well as anyone has all season and Robben's world-class.

"Making his home debut, the expectation's completely different. We're expected to put Watford under pressure and attack. He was playing in front of his home crowd and the pressure on him was greater than Wednesday in many respects.

"Overall, he didn't put a foot wrong. He kept it simple. He defended safely, we didn't want him to get forward over-lapping on the right. He's a centre-back who is a good listener. He used the ball with a minimum of fuss, he was nice, neat and tidy, which is what I'd asked him to do. 

"A year ago he was playing on the academy pitches and picked up 40 stitches in an eye and a night in hospital after (Tim) Krul almost kicked his head off. Now look where he is. Maybe there's a good future for him but let's not hype him up or get carried away."

Kieron Dyer commented:

"He's got a great physique and definitely a body for the beach in the summer. The club have invested a lot of money in Oba but he has the physical attributes to be a success in the Premiership. I've never played with a player with more power in both feet.

"I watch a lot of football and knew all about Oba because I'd seen him play a fair bit for Inter Milan. He has another gear to go up yet, but I never doubted he'd be a success. He's scoring goals, playing with confidence and the supporters have taken to him.

"I first saw Oba score those couple of goals at Highbury for Inter Milan in the Champions League as a teenager and I was always interested. 

"He has explosive pace, enormous strength, a phenomenal leap and his heading ability is great. He's comfortable on either foot. People expected too much too soon because of the price tag but the gamble wasn't on his ability but how quickly he could settle in.

"(Arsenal away) was the game Oba settled into the Premiership. He'd been out with hamstring problems, but even though he played as a lone striker, he gave Toure and Gallas a torrid afternoon with his strength and pace. 

"It was my first game back and I scored, the whole team played well and we got a lot of belief from that result. Confidence was low and we were in the bottom three. We went to Arsenal and nobody gave us a hope of getting anything.

"As strange as it might seem, I've actually been relieved with these latest injuries. Don't get me wrong, I've been gutted to miss more games because of them, my comeback has been stop-start so far, which is frustrating. But the thing is they have both been freak injuries, not physical problems.

"It's incredible. How many times has a player been injured by a flag pole hitting him in the eye? I've never heard of it before. That kept me out for a fortnight and then, a week later, I cut my leg open when I slid into an advertising board. I've never heard of that happening before either. It's been ridiculous and irritating but it's not been my hamstrings.

"I don't think I'm lucky. How can I be lucky with all the problems I've had in the last couple of years? I'm just pleased there hasn't been the slightest twinge in my hamstrings, I don't even think about them anymore.

"My hamstrings have been the main problem for me for almost two years but I've not had any trouble with them. I was finally given the time to get my body right and solve the problem, that's the biggest relief. My body seems to be fine, hopefully my bad luck is also behind me and I can get on with my career again."

Shay Given when asked if his goals had boosted Martins:

"Yes it does - and he has got number nine on his back as well. He is a young guy as well and people should not forget that.

"He is still learning his trade and has come in from a different league. The Italian league is totally different to the Premiership, so it was always going to take time for him to settle in.

"I do think these goals will give him a real boost in confidence. He is probably desperate for the next game to come along so he can get some more goals.

"James Milner put a great ball in for his first and the spring was unbelievable, and it was a great header.

"His second, I thought he was never going to hit it. He took his time and got himself into position and then he nearly ripped the net off.

"But as the gaffer and a few of the players have said, we have seen that a lot in training and it is nice to see it now on a match day."

Adie Boothroyd said:

"To come away with nothing after a performance like that is a punch on the nose.

"It's not difficult for me to keep my spirits up. I believe in the people I'm working with, my abilities and in the club's vision.

"We're competing against multi-million pound clubs. We're not winning and we know we're not winning. In order to win you need depth and quality in each position and we don't quite have that but we'll address that in January."

After the anticipated disappointment of Chelsea, Newcastle got back into the winning habit with what was once a familiar Second Division fixture for the pre-Keegan generation. 

And as they were in the late 70s and early 80s, the 21st century Hornets fused the rough and ready approach honed at a lower league level with some approach play decent enough to expose the limitations of our defence.  

The difference was that we had someone of sufficient calibre to take whatever chances came our way (that and the fact that likes of David Barton weren't poking one in their own net). Were we the only ones to breath a sigh of relief when Martins went past that infamous Shinton seven goal top scorer record today?

If the mark of a centre forward is that he gets the goals that banish memories of what were otherwise average performances, then Martins has arrived - emulating the routine achievements of our former number nine wearer to give us three barely-deserved points.

In the way that we were forced to reduce our expectation levels following Owen's injury, so our opponents were similarly hamstrung when Marlon King (scorer of 22 Championship goals last season) was ruled out for the season with a knee injury.

Of course we were able to go out and hock ourselves further to fill in the gaps, while Watford had to make do with re-signing their former striker Tommy Smith, who has failed to score in his 14 Premiership appearances. 

And collectively for Boothroyd's men it was just one goal in five Premiership games before today. Maybe they'll try and borrow Rossi off Manchester United come next month - he'll be doing nowt.   

Any opposition managers tuning into the highlights of this one will doubtless have cursed themselves for being so daft if they've failed to beat us - or mentally registered one or two things if they are still to face us.

When the bottom-placed side in the league is giving your defence palpitations purely by clogging in free kicks, corners and throw-ins, then there's scope for better sides to exploit our weaknesses - and really run rings round Babayaro, who looked most uncomfortable today.

Annoyingly, we attempted to progress via an inferior version of this ploy - our set-pieces remaining below par and corners now a standing joke. Martins may well be in possessed of a prodigious leap, but that still doesn't justify idly banjoing the ball in the air to him.

In general we were off-kilter in a muted first half, with a disjointed midfield seeing Emre and Dyer bunching up too often, Milner out on the wing and Sibierski the odd man out, trying to find space but too often ending up out towards the flanks.

We'd predicted that Duff could appear at the interval, but given his stately progress down the left wing when he did come on, he'll need to be eased back in as gradually as our fixture programme and future injury calamities will allow.

And yet it all came together, despite very little sign that we were capable of imposing our alleged superiority on feisty opponents who fancied themselves after drawing level and gave Given and Co. a few semi-anxious moments.

No boos today but plenty of audible exasperation when things broke down, as they often did. The brittle nature of our recovery remains, both in terms of the proximity of chasing sides if we lose points to them and also the ease with which the collective worry mode can be invoked at SJP.

A run of successive home games often seems to be a double-edged sword where we are concerned, but having come through this game intact without really clicking, we should hopefully be in better fettle for the second and third episodes of our North/South encounters - and a wee bit more organised.

If the form of Martins does one thing, it takes some of the pressure off the team in general and the defence in particular - not a bad thing given the lack of choice immediately in front of Shay at present. For the likes of Watford though, conceding a goal remains the prelude to a perennially pointless exercise. 

Thankfully we've risen above that hand to mouth existence in recent weeks, although the jitters are still there: we're yet to go into the final minute of a home Premiership game this season without the anxiety that only being one goal up brings. 

Full value though - and one way of keeping people in their seats....  

Biffa