Miguel Almiron scored his first club goal since February 2021 as Newcastle beat Crystal Palace

Almiron finished magnificently from Bruno Guimaraes’ lofted pass to lift Eddie Howe’s side up to 11th in the table and all but guarantee the Magpies’ place in the top flight next season.

Guimaraes and Allan Saint-Maximin tested Vicente Guaita in a one-sided first half, while the impressive Joelinton sent a header looping over the crossbar not long after the interval.

Palace emerged for the second half with greater urgency and very nearly equalised when Wilfried Zaha dragged Odsonne Edouard’s pass narrowly wide of Martin Dubravka’s right-hand post.

Zaha also sent a curling effort inches over the crossbar in the final minute of second-half stoppage time. Patrick Vieira’s side drop to 14th after suffering back-to-back league defeats for the first time since the turn of the year. The last time Newcastle registered six straight top-flight victories at St James’ Park was during the 2003-04 campaign – Sir Bobby Robson’s final full season in charge of the club. “It’s a great night for the football club,” Howe told Sky Sports afterwards. “You can forget how hard it’s been to get us into this position now. We have to look back with great satisfaction. “You can very quickly forget where we were and where we’ve come from this season. It’s been great to see the team move forward and develop.”