Newcastle staged a stunning second-half fightback to maintain their charge for Europe by slamming the Barclays Premiership door firmly shut behind arch-rivals Sunderland.

Four second-half goals handed the Magpies a third win on the trot at the Stadium of Light and a fourth successive league win as Glenn Roeder got the better in the battle of the caretaker bosses.

It was an outcome which looked unlikely at half-time when they trudged off the pitch trailing to Justin Hoyte's 32nd-minute strike having been completely out-played by Kevin Ball's men.

But substitute Michael Chopra levelled within 13 seconds of his arrival as a 59th-minute replacement for Lee Clark, and Alan Shearer thumped home a penalty two minutes later to put the visitors ahead.

Charles N'Zogbia's 66th-minute strike sealed the points, and Albert Luque's 88th-minute fourth simply added to the misery on Wearside as the Black Cats' wait for a home win over their neighbours continued.

The game represented Sunderland's last chance to salvage any pride from a disastrous season, and a crowd of 40,032 turned up to witness it, the bulk of them hoping against hope that Shearer's last ever visit to the Stadium of Light would end in disappointment.

Their task could not be under-estimated: they had not won a home derby in 10 attempts stretching back 26 years, and with the Magpies having won their last three league games on the trot to rekindle hopes of European qualification, they knew a first league win on their own ground would take a major performance.

However, after excellent displays in their last two completed games to secure creditable away draws at Everton and Manchester United, they ran out confident of finally giving their home supporters something to celebrate.

Sadly their local rivals had other plans which prevailed.