JANUARY SIGNINGS BRUNO Guimaraes and Chris Wood scored their first Newcastle goals to help fire Eddie Howe’s side to a sixth win in seven games with a 2-1 win over Southampton at St Mary’s.
Wood ended his longest goal drought in more than six years of 14 games to cancel out Stuart Armstrong’s goal before Guimaraes bagged the winner with a sublime piece of solo skill.
Newcastle handed Brazilian midfielder Guimaraes a first Premier League start since his £40m transfer-window move from Lyon.
Newcastle started brightly, forcing an early corner and with Jacob Murphy fizzing in an inviting cross that Jan Bednarek managed to clear before Wood could reach it.
Saints’ first meaningful attack came in the 20th minute when Oriol Romeu’s raking pass from the halfway line sent Armando Broja racing in behind the Newcastle defence.
Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka did well to come quickly off his line and steal the ball off Broja’s toes and turn it behind.
James Ward-Prowse’s resulting corner found Romeu in space on the edge of the penalty area, but the Spaniard ballooned his shot high over the crossbar.
Broja came close again in the 23rd minute but could only scuff his shot wide after being teed up by strike partner Che Adams following some sloppy play in midfield by Jonjo Shelvey.
Newcastle suddenly looked under pressure and Armstrong fired the home side in front two minutes later.
Kyle Walker-Peters floated in a delicious left-wing cross which was headed back across goal by Mohamed Elyounoussi for Armstrong to nod beyond the exposed Dubravka from four yards.
Saints’ lead lasted just seven minutes before Wood rose above Salisu to head Shelvey’s hanging cross past Fraser Forster to make it 1-1.
Scotland striker Adams then rattled the Newcastle crossbar with a power-packed volley from six yards.
Newcastle were quickest out of the traps after half-time and found themselves in front seven minutes after the re-start.
Former Southampton left-back Matt Targett’s corner was headed down at the far post by Burn and Guimaraes improvised superbly to back-heel the ball into the roof of the net.
The visitors had Dubravka to thank for putting more daylight between them and the bottom three.
The Slovakian made two excellent saves in the closing minutes, first clawing away Salisu’s header and then tipping Armstrong’s long-range effort over the crossbar.
Watford’s dwindling Premier League survival hopes suffered another blow as a dreadful opening 21 minutes saw them beaten comfortably at Wolves.
A 4-0 defeat at Molineux leaves Watford with just one win from their last 16 Premier League outings, with Roy Hodgson’s side three points from safety with 10 games remaining.
Everton in 17th have a superior goal difference and three games in hand as an early strike from Raul Jimenez, a Cucho Hernandez own goal and a Daniel Podence effort saw Wolves coasting with less than a quarter of the game gone – and a fine Ruben Neves chip rounded off a commanding display late on.
Three defeats on the bounce for the home side never looked like becoming four as they maintain hopes of securing European qualification at the end of the season.
Hodgson doffed his cap to the trio of strikes scored by Arsenal to down Watford on Sunday – but here he was left shaking his head in disbelief.
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