Toon upset by Rovers

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Benni McCarthy's 22nd goal of the season and Jason Roberts' 73rd-minute strike were more than enough to claim the points.

It might have been very different had Kieron Dyer's fifth-minute header from Stephen Carr's cross not been turned around the post by Brad Friedel.

The visitors took the lead in controversial circumstances when McCarthy got the benefit of a marginal offside decision to thump Stephen Warnock's 14th-minute cross past Steve Harper.

Ryan Nelsen got in a vital challenge to prevent Owen from firing home the equaliser from Scott Parker's flick-on after 40 minutes.

Friedel then turned away James Milner's curling free-kick, but he should have been beaten on the stroke of half-time when, after he could only punch Nolberto Solano's driven cross to Owen, the England international drilled his shot high over.

Shay Given's deputy kept his side in it with a fine save from Morten Gamst Pedersen 11 minutes before the break, and Rovers had a goal correctly ruled out for offside seconds later with Newcastle in disarray at the back.

Newcastle returned in determined mood and Parker found himself in the thick of the action during the opening minutes of the half, first just failing to reach Owen's flick-on and then seeing Milner's driven cross cannon off him and drop wide of the target.

As they pushed for the equaliser, the home side left gaps at the back and they were fortunate to escape on 53 minutes when McCarthy and David Bentley combined to play Roberts in, only for an offside flag to wrongly halt his progress.

The game was over when Roberts was handed the simplest of tasks by Bentley to head past Harper.