Steve McClaren admitted he was struggling to make sense of his first Barclays Premier League victory as Newcastle's head coach after seeing them trounce Norwich City 6-2.
The Magpies, who had gone eight league games without a win since the start of the campaign, finally closed out a roller-coaster of a game at St James' Park as £14.5million summer signing Georginio Wijnaldum plundered four goals.
McClaren said: "It's Newcastle, is it possible to make any sense? That's what we are fast discovering. But I think that was just reward. I'm so pleased for the players, so pleased for the fans.
"Like we have said all along not to get too down and after tonight, we are not going to get high. There's a lot of work to do, but it shows today when it comes together what we are capable of doing."
A victory which lifted Newcastle to the relatively heady heights of 18th place in the table, came as a huge relief to McClaren and his players seven days before their derby trip to fellow strugglers Sunderland, and provided the club's famous 88-year-old tea lady, Kath Cassidy, with the perfect send-off after 52 years' service.
But it came in nerve shredding fashion as Wijnaldum struck twice and Ayoze Perez once before the break only to see Dieumerci Mbokani and then Nathan Redmond keep the Canaries within touching distance.
However, with the visitors pushing for an equaliser, the home side prospered on the break with Aleksandar Mitrovic extending their lead before Wijnaldum helped himself to two more.
Asked about his emotions, McClaren said: "It's relief, and then thinking we have got to prepare and we have got to do it again next week.
"It's very short, the feeling is very short. Football is all about momentum and you can have momentum going the other way - which we have had. We want this one to go forward.
"There's a long way to go, a lot of work to do, but today showed the potential and showed the supporters at home that this is what we are capable doing."
Wijnaldum because the first Magpies to score four goals for the club since Alan Shearer put five past Sheffield Wednesday in an 8-0 demolition job in September 1999.
McClaren said: "You saw today what he is capable of doing, which is why we brought him here. He can be and will be and showed today that he's a Premier League player."
For Norwich boss Alex Neil, it proved a frustrating trip to the north-east.
He said: "Offensively, we looked dangerous, scored two really good goals, hit the post twice, had other good opportunities to score; but defensively as a team...
"To be honest, I thought the game was wide-open - it was a bit like a basketball match. I thought both teams were wide-open.
"It could have ended pretty much 8-8, but the opportunities we had, unfortunately we didn't score, we hit the post or whatever, and pretty much most of the opportunities Newcastle had ended up in the back of the net.
"I thought both teams were really, really open and we could have score four, five or six ourselves.
"For them to score six based on the game itself, you could argue it was harsh, but we have got to defend better."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel