James Milner praised Newcastle's performance in their 3-1 mauling of Tottenham, which sees the Magpies seated nicely in eighth as Sam Allardyce continues his impressive start to his reign in the Premiership. Milner scored the third goal in the 73rd minute.

Milner told Setanta Sports 1: "It was another good performance at home.

"Tottenham are a tough team with a lot of good players and we hope to get into the winning habit now. It's about riding out the poor performances and getting results.

"It's nice for me to get off the mark.

"It was a bit of a shank, the first one, but it was nice to get it.

"Everyone expected the first shot to go somewhere but it didn't, so it was a case of reacting."

Martins said: "It was very important because we really needed the three points. We tried to dominate the game so I'm very happy."

Asked about his goal, Martins said: "It's okay. It's good. I'm happy. The important thing is the three points."