Eddie Howe's side celebrated the first anniversary of his taking charge of them two days early on Sunday, ruthlessly dispatching a Saints side - and their head coach, who was sacked

Twelve months to the day that Newcastle struggled to a point along the coast with manager-elect Howe watching from the stand, they emphatically collected three points to leave them third in the table.

A fourth successive win that lengthened United's unbeaten run to nine games began with a fourth goal in as many games from Miggy Almiron that gained a half time lead.

And as sunshine gave way to rain, last season's St.Mary's scorers Chris Wood and Bruno Guimaraes repeated their feats, book-ending Joe Willock's first of the season.

Victory was ultimately achieved at a canter despite the absence of Joelinton through suspension and the loss of Callum Wilson at the break due to illness. Kieran Trippier and Almiron were also substituted after receiving treatment, although both replacements thankfully appeared precautionary.

Miggy's 35th minute opener saw him receive the ball from Trippier in his own half, haring forward to collect the return when it arrived via Sean Longstaff's pass and Callum Wilson's neat layoff.

Charging into the box towards the away contingent, Almiron kept his composure and wriggled round Ainsley Maitland-Niles rather than squaring the ball to Jacob Murphy and stroked home his eighth of the season.

Miggy's proximity to the target meant that Gavin Bazunu had little chance of preventing the goal, but the bright sunshine that had seen away fans behind his goal squinting and shading their eyes rather surprisingly hadn't caused the home 'keeper to don a hat. 

The Saints should have gone marching in level at the break, but Stuart Armstrong's tempting cross from the right two minutes into time added on was blasted past the back post by Mohamed Elyounoussi when it seemed harder to miss.

Southampton continued to threaten after the restart and after a few half-chances, a rare misplaced pass from Sven Botman to prompt a home attack ended with Che Adams thumping his volley wide.

That miss came on 56 minutes and within two minutes the ball was in the net at the other end of the ground; approach work from Willock and Murphy giving Wood the opportunity to swivel and steer his low shot home.

Celebrations were still in full flow behind Nick Pope's goal just four minutes later, when a razor-sharp counter-attack from United opened up a three goal lead.

Players from both sides lay sprawled out on the turf outside the Newcastle area as Bruno cleared his lines and Trippier beat his opponent to the ball on halfway. He then played a superb pass for Willock to outpace a posse of defenders and poke past the advancing Gavin Bazunu.

As had been the case at Fulham, a late defensive reshuffle cost United their clean sheet when Romain Perraud found himself unmarked on the left side of our box in possession and eluded Dan Burn's last-ditch lunge before scooping the ball into the net.

Those home fans still in their places greeted that with the minimum of applause, but were soon grumbling again after United grabbed a fourth goal.

Jonjo Shelvey's short free kick deep in the Saints half was knocked to Bruno and the Brazilian exchanged passes with Allan Saint-Maximin before his right-footer from outside the box bounced in front of the shell-shocked Bazunu and into the net.

The final whistle moments later was greeted by the now-familiar scenes of celebration on and off the pitch, those who made light of yet more travel complications staying on to salute another memorable effort from the players and coaches, who in turn applauded them. 

Southampton's official website accurately described the visitors as rampant, resurgent and clinical but this was a less disciplined and more error-strewn display than at Spurs. Our predatory attacking instincts were more evident than in N17 though, as a second successive four goal catch was landed.

Victory took Newcastle to 27 points, up one place into third, staying there when Liverpool won at Spurs in the late game. Manchester United's defeat at Aston Villa meanwhile guarantees our top four spot through the World Cup break, regardless of the outcome when Chelsea visit Tyneside on Saturday.

It's all a far cry from 12 months ago, when United kicked off at the Amex with results elsewhere leaving them at rock bottom.

90 grim minutes later, they had their fifth point of the season from their eleventh game, leading us to comment that Howe could have been forgiven for leaving at half time, having seen first-hand the task that awaited him.

It's to his credit and our benefit that he chose to sign up, but even Eddie must be pinching himself when assessing the pace and scale of the transformation that has taken place under his guidance.

Biffa