Tottenham's Champions League hopes were dealt a blow as Newcastle ended a run of four successive defeats in style.

A first-half blitz saw the Magpies race into a 3-1 lead inside the opening half-hour. And although they rode their luck after the break, Michael Dawson's 61st-minute dismissal for a second bookable offence effectively ended Tottenham's fightback.

Lee Bowyer fired the Magpies in front with just a minute and six seconds gone, and although Robbie Keane levelled, Shola Ameobi restored Newcastle's lead after 25 minutes.

Alan Shearer's 30th-minute penalty - his 203rd goal for the club in his 300th Premiership appearance - ultimately sealed the win, although Keane saw a piledriver come back off the crossbar and later clipped a post, and former Magpie Jermaine Jenas could not find the unguarded net after rounding Shay Given.

The bulk of a crowd of 52,301 went home happy, although wondering what might have been after seeing their side dominate a team challenging for the top-four finish Newcastle so crave.

Bowyer, who might have left the club in January but this week pledged his coontinued allegiance, opened the scoring with his first Premiership goal of the season and his first in any competition since last July.

It came from a flowing move involving Charles N'Zogbia, Shearer and Nolberto Solano which set the tone for a thrilling display.

The first half was not without its scares as a rearguard which included three men - Robbie Elliott, Peter Ramage and Craig Moore - who would not figure in the club's strongest back four was kept on its toes by Keane.

The Dubliner headed the visitors back level after 19 minutes, applying the finish after Aaron Lennon had comprehensively beaten former Tottenham full-back Stephen Carr. Keane then smashed a shot against the crossbar in injury time.

But by that point, Newcastle had taken the game by the scruff of the neck.

Ameobi's 25th-minute strike restored their lead, and there was more to come when Bowyer, who had earlier had appeals for a penalty turned down, was inexplicably shoved to the ground by Edgar Davids after Shearer and Solano had carved Tottenham open once again.

Shearer hammered the penalty past Paul Robinson to give his side a deserved 3-1 lead, and had he not earlier missed from the kind of headed opportunity upon which he has built his career, Roeder's men could have been out of sight.