Ruud van Nistelrooy usually enjoys his trips to St James' Park. After all, the Dutchman ran out at the iconic Tyneside venue five times during his playing career and scored on every single visit. Only Leicester's very own Jamie Vardy matches that 100% record at a single venue - The Hawthorns.
However, in the manager's first away match as a Premier League boss, it was an afternoon to forget as his side were demolished in the easiest of fashions in the north east. A first-half strike by Jacob Murphy, two quickfire finishes straight at the interval and a fourth by Murphy midway through the second-half had the former [Manchester United](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/manchester-united-fc) forward resigned to a brutal defeat.
Van Nistelrooy didn't leave the touchline once during the Newcastle drubbing. There was a vacant and rather expression-less look on his face throughout the tie as his side tested stand-in stopper Martin Dubravka just once.
There was virtually no input from his assistants either, who remained rooted to the bench throughout - leaving Van Nistelrooy alone on the St James' Park sidelines. However, a late flashpoint with Jason Tindall brought the only real sign of emotion from the top flight newbie in the closing stages.
One minute later, the former striker threw his arms in front of him for a good five seconds as he stood dead still, bemoaning his side giving the ball away cheaply again. It was, without doubt, one of the worst afternoons for the highly-rated coach in a long time.
“The domination of Newcastle was clear. The team tried and did the best they could," the Foxes chief explained at full time. "The game was decided in the detail. The first half was a set-piece and the second one too, straight after half-time.
"Those are details. Then you’re 2-0 down away at Newcastle. If you want to have a chance on the result, you have to take care of these things. If not, it’s going to be a really hard afternoon."
Newcastle may not enjoy an easier win at St James' Park for a long time. After enjoying 27 shots on goal, 11 on target, and 60 per cent of the possession, it was the exact display they needed after a testing few weeks. The challenge now is to continue in the same form when Brentford arrive in the north east in the Carabao Cup in midweek.
“It’s a big win for a lot of reasons but this week with two home games and the importance of both games, we needed to start well and this gives us a massive lift, Eddie Howe said.
“It was important we responded to the Brentford performance in the right way and I thought we did, right from the start of the game I thought we looked engaged and mentally switched on to give a really athletic and technical performance.