Newcastle 3 Portsmouth 0

Given a starting place for the first time since joining us, on-loan striker Giuseppe Rossi repaid his selection with a finely-taken goal and a lively display to help ease us into the Fourth Round of the Carling Cup.

However while Rossi's contribution will have pleased Glenn Roeder, there's also an element of irony in watching a striker borrowed from another Premiership side make more of an impact than the £10m striker alongside him - or the £11m one languishing on the bench.

Luque was an unused sub, while Martins exited at half time after managing two decent efforts - one a tricky lob from the right flank that ended up on the roof of the net; the other a sizzling volley from a corner that flew over the bar. That aside though, there was little of note.

Rossi meanwhile played the full game, showed some good control and trickery in the early stages and in general looked up for the fight - doubtless pleased just to be playing.

It was early in the second half though when he showed his true worth though, coming to life in the opposition area to control the ball, twist and fire home in one movement - ignoring the sprawled out Steven Taylor and his dodgy penalty appeal to finish in style.

That quickness of thought and reaction then almost grabbed Rossi another one, only for him to place his shot at James, rather than across into the unguarded part of the Gallowgate net.

By then though we'd gone further ahead, Duff the provider with the sort of left wing cross we dreamed of him serving up - finished by the unlikely figure of Solano, who buried his header into the roof of the net.

After that we spent increasing periods of time around the edge of the Pompey area, with Solano opting to try and lob James with an effort off the outside of his boot, while an unmarked Duff waited infield for a pass.

Finally though, a run to the byline and pullback from Milner ended with Solano deflecting a half-clearance into the goal to round off the night.

Rested for this tie were Ameobi, Parker and Carr, while Duff and Ramage began the night on the bench before appearing on the field. Emre and Sibierski were unavailable due to injury, while Craig Moore took the Captain's armband.

Heavy pre-match rain continued after kickoff, resulting in saturated sections of the SJP pitch that barely allowed the ball to roll across them - causing one or two embarrassing moments for both sets of players.

The 25,000 who did brave the elements to make up our lowest crowd domestic home crowd in 14 years were rewarded with three second half goals and some inter-passing that belied the difficult conditions underfoot.

As well as the scoreline and the performance of Rossi, a further boost came with the comeback of Kieron Dyer, who looked to come through his allotted 30 minutes without problems - and almost marked his return with a goal.

The two former Toon strikers back on their old stamping ground both had quiet nights, although Lomana LuaLua did have the ball in the net on 84 minutes - only to see it ruled out for offside (with a handball also suspected).

While a win of any sorts is welcome at present and scoring three goals without reply is a rare treat, there has to be some sort of context applied here.

Not for the first time, questions could be asked about a defence at SJP featuring Andy O'Brien, while the visitors in general seemed resigned to their fate once behind - leaving it late before rousing themselves when two down.

But as we had done against Fenerbahce there was a sense of a commitment to getting the job done and some solid displays - Bramble especially seeming to relish the conditions.

Certainly this was a country mile away from our last tie in this competition - the disgraceful non- display at Wigan last season (from which only N'Zogbia and Solano were in the starting XIs for both games).

Enjoyable this 50th win in the League Cup was though, Saturday's showdown with Charlton (who beat Bolton tonight) is pivotal to our season.

Our advice? Start with Rossi on Saturday and water the pitch.....if it ever stops raining.

PS - If this result does one thing, it will hopefully give a boost to the collective mood of the SJP crowd in advance of the next game.

It remains in the hands of the players to keep the crowd on their side - the anti-Shepherd chants of last Sunday came about because of frustration with events on the field.

Quite simply, if the team is entertaining them and winning match, most folks don't give two hoots about the PLC goings on.

use the thread thats already been made about this topic m8