At St Andrew’s Church in Gallowgate, in the shadow of St James’ Park, the Reverend Glyn Evans was conducting his Good Friday service. His hymn sheets have been adapted to include such songs of praise as “All Things Black and White”, “Score, Shearer, Score” and “Onward Bobby’s Soldiers”. This is a city, it perhaps ought to be pointed out, where members of the Welbeck Road Evangelical Church once stood outside Newcastle United’s ground distributing leaflets which posed the question: “Is Kevin Keegan really the Messiah ?”

It was a day for keeping the faith in Newcastle. Evans – the Barclaycard Fan of the Month for March – was obliged to forsake his black-and-white scarf for his black- and-white cassock and collar, to leave his season ticket in the vestry, and to place his trust in Bobby’s Soldiers They did him proud. Shearer scored and all things in the black-and- white garden were bright and beautiful once again.After five matches without a win, with Leeds and Chelsea closing on the Premiership’s fourth Champions’ League spot, and with hopes of first-class silverware effectively finished for a 32nd successive season, Newcastle United returned to form with a glorious Easter flourish. The doubters among the 51,000 congregation up the hill from St Andrew’s were treated to their team’s highest goalscoring performance for two-and-a-half years. The 6-2 win at St James’ was Newcastle’s biggest score since 19 September 1999, the Sunday when they knocked Sheffield Wednesday into the middle of the next week, to the tune of 8-0.That happened to be Bobby Robson’s first home match as manager of the Magpies.

They remained on the second- bottom perch in the Premiership, in 19th position. Friday’s emphatic victory gave them a more secure hold on fourth place, bringing visions of Champions’ League football at St James’ next season back into sharper focus.”Yes, we’re back on course,” Robson enthused, in that boyish sexagenarian manner of his. “It’s a big win for us in every aspect – in terms of confidence, in terms of motivation for the next match, at Aston Villa on Tuesday, and in terms of relief, in a way It takes a bit of pressure off Now we’re on the up again.”It’s just what we needed We’re back in contention. In contention for what I don’t know, because I can’t tell you who’ll finish first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth Anybody could finish anywhere. But we’re back in contention for whatever con- tention is.” Newcastle’s manager, like his players, was clearly back in form. What he meant to say was that his team were back on track for a fourth-place finish, with the possibility of climbing higher.

Even fifth or sixth position would represent significant progress for Newcastle.It is six seasons now since they last finished in the top half of the Premiership. “At the start of the season, if I thought we’d finish in the top eight I would have said, ‘Well, we’ve made tremendous strides this season’,” Robson mused. “We’ve been first, second, third and fourth in the League most of the season We’ve done terrific. Now the question is: ‘Can we see it out?’ “On Friday’s evidence they probably can, though they will need to keep the goals gushing if their defence continues to leak like it did in the first half.