Sam said:

"It was a great return at St James’ Park with three goals, which we have not seen for a while – apart from pre-season.

"The performance at times was a little patchy, but in the end it was capable of overcoming West Ham. There were excellent performances throughout the team, starting with Steven Harper.

"The back four in general kept an attacking West Ham side, which had scored three goals in their two previous games, reasonably quiet.

"Then in midfield Nicky Butt, in terms of how he broke up the opposition attacks and kept driving us forward, was excellent.

"Mark Viduka’s two goals were excellent and Charles N’Zogbia, in terms of getting forward and moving up one position, was great.

"We paired Alan Smith and Obafemi Martins up front when Viduka and Owen had to go off, and we did not look any worse then.

"It was very encouraging from that point of view. There were Habib Beye and Jose Enrique and their first tastes of the Premiership.

"From that point of view – with players getting to know each other and getting to know the Premier League – it was a terrific result.

"We have 11 points on the board from six games, and it is a terrific start.

"This is not just a good result for us, it is a great result to get our confidence going, and we will look forward to tomorrow night and the Carling Cup tie at Arsenal.

"The one for Mark Viduka in the early minutes was a good goal but we seemed to sit back on that. I'm finding out about the team. This can only get better from a defensive point of view.

"We needed a bit more width in the second half, we did that and finally got a great result.

"We bounced back after the disappointment of Derby."

Alan Curbishley commented:

"We're obviously disappointed because we thought that we could've got something and should've got something from the game. And if we'd applied ourselves a bit better against Newcastle United, then we would have done.

"To be honest, I felt that the scoreline was a bit harsh on us in terms of the overall match but our defending obviously cost us dearly.

"There are certain situations that you just can't afford to get yourselves into, especially when you're away from home and getting caught in your own penalty box with only two minutes gone is exactly one of those.

"After that, we had to work very hard to get back into the game and, once Dean Ashton equalised, I thought we were the better side but three or four minutes before half-time - just when we were looking to get back into the dressing room to sort one or two other things out - we gave away a poor second goal.

"There was a big hole in our full back position and, although we had three men in our penalty area, Viduka still managed to get the ball, despite being the only Newcastle player in there with them.

"Lee Bowyer's late shot might have turned the game if he'd made it 2-2 before they tapped home their third goal from two yards out. You just can't defend like that.

"We've been beaten 3-1 yet I can't remember Robert Green having to make a decent save for us.

"Deano still needs more football but when you compare his performances against Newcastle and Middlesbrough to his first start of the season at Reading three weeks ago, then you can see the difference in his fitness levels. We've had to handle Dean in a similar fashion to that of Michael and, fortunately, he's having an injury free run at the moment.

"Thankfully, he's not had any setbacks like Michael and, after coming through pre-season, he's now looking stronger and stronger. Deano spent the summer concentrating on the fact that he needed to get through pre-season to give himself a base and we're really pleased for him, right now.

"Dean's been out for a year and a bit and he's just happy to be back playing at the moment. We've not even discussed his chances of getting a call-up for England because we're not looking any further than just getting him through matches for West Ham United.

"Steve McClaren and his people have been to our recent games and they would've all seen that he's getting himself stronger and sharper, so we'll just have to wait and see.

"Anything can happen in this game and things can change so quickly. Only yesterday, I had two players - Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy - whom we thought would be involved against Newcastle and, all of a sudden, they were pulled out of the squad after our final training session.

"Like other teams, we've been dealt a few blows on the injury front - that's not an excuse - but we have been particularly hit and that's how it is for us at the moment.

"The losses of Julien Faubert, Kieron Dyer, Parker and Bellamy have been big losses for us but other players have come in and have got us where we are in the Premier League and it wasn't lost on us that the winning team was going to push into the top four or five in the table.

"Unfortunately, we just didn't have enough against Newcastle and we're down because we haven't taken anything to keep our run going. On the face of it we should have got something but at the end of the day, Newcastle probably deserved it because they defended better than us."