First-half goals by Christopher Samba and Roque Santa Cruz put Rovers firmly in charge of the match, and the visitors hung on to win after Michael Owen’s 50th-minute penalty brought Newcastle back into contention.

Despite the bewilderment of Newcastle’s fans at the decision to appoint forgotten man Joe Kinnear as interim manager, 42,000 turned up to cheer on the home side.

The crowd failed to inspire the men in black and white in the first-half, however, during which Newcastle failed to register a single shot on target.

The only surprise in the first period was that it took Rovers 30 minutes to take the lead. Shay Given had earlier made heroic saves from Matt Derbyshire and Santa Cruz to keep his side in it, while Sebastien Bassong cleared a Derbyshire header from off the line.

Newcastle’s rearguard action crumbled after half an hour, when Samba powered home a free kick from the influentialCarlos Villanueva into the net. The defender appeared to be in an offside position when the Chilean summer signing whipped the ball left-footed into the box from the right, but the goal was no more than Blackburn deserved.

Ten minutes later Santa Cruz doubled the Lancashire outfit’s lead when he guided a header past Given and into the same corner as Samba’s opener from a Brett Emerton cross from the right.

Chris Hughton, in solo charge of the Magpies for the final time, sent his side out early for the second half, and they responded with a lively opening effort.

That was rewarded five minutes in when Rovers skipper Ryan Nelsen was adjudged to have fouled Owen just inside the area by referee Steve Tanner. Owen took the resulting penalty himself, and stroked the ball down the centre of the goal to beat Blackburn’s otherwise excellent stand-in keeper Jason Brown.

Damien Duff looked dangerous on Newcastle’s left wing during the second period. He created two headed chances forGeremi either side of Owen’s goal, but the Cameroonian failed to find the target with either.

Nelsen was booked for a high challenge on Owen with 65 minutes on the clock, and was then extremely fortunate to avoid a second yellow for a late, late tackle on N’Zogbia on the edge of the United area ten minutes later.

A red card would certainly have made Blackburn’s task harder, but with their full quota of players on the pitch Rovers dealt comfortably with Newcastle’s attempts to equalise.

The Magpies had the vast majority of the ball after halving the deficit, but failed to create any clear-cut chances after the second Geremi chance.

The result leaves Newcastle in 19th place with just two points from six games, while Blackburn are riding high in sixth.

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