Arguably the most unexpected result of Steve Bruce's 73 Premier League games in charge of Newcastle United arrived at the King Power Stadium on Friday night.

While a 4-2 success against a Leicester City side eyeing Champions League qualification was eye-catching enough, to be leading the Foxes by four clear goals at one point was nothing short of sensational.

The yellow-clad Magpies had already missed two decent chances to open the scoring, when the alertness of Joe Willock saw him catch Caglar Soyuncu dawdling in possession before coolly poking home on 22 minutes.

And that lead was deservedly doubled before the break when the unlikely figure of Paul Dummett powered in a header from a Matt Ritchie corner. The last time he scored, Daryl Janmaat claimed the assist.

A change of ends brought no alteration in the flow of the game, Ritchie's outstanding pass down the left flank tempting Timothy Castagne in an abortive backpass that set up Callum Wilson to stroll forward and fire past Kasper Schmeichel in the 64th minute.

And Wilson was at it again nine minutes later, seizing on Miguel Almiron's pass. Striking the post with his first effort, he slammed the rebound into the net from the narrowest of angles, to the bafflement of Wesley Fofana.

Some late discomfort followed when Marc Albrighton blasted into the roof of the net on 80 minutes and Martin Dubravka was caught out again by the in-form Kelechi Iheanacho six minutes later.

Dubravka's instinctive block to deny old boy Ayoze Perez moments later ended faint hopes of an unlikely Foxes revival and Jamie Vardy's header onto the roof of the net was to be our final moment of anxiety.

Once the dust settled and incredulity subsided, victory wasn't a total shock given that we've now taken maximum points from three out of our last four visits to this venue and City have been somewhat slipshod at home. And aside from the Arsenal aberration, we've had the knack of collecting points recently despite only offering a threat at certain times in the game.

Much was made of avenging the 0-5 loss here last season, but it's overlooked that Newcastle played more than half of that game a man short after Isaac Hayden was red-carded (when the score stood at 0-1).

What was unexpected tonight though - apart from the goal rush - was the manner in which it was achieved; the predictably passive approach quickly giving way to counter attacks at pace, with precision passing and pressing when not in possession: all in stark contrast to last week's no-show.

We even managed to exploit City's weakness for set pieces, although it would be stretching a point to claim that the late free kick Shelvey banjoed forward and somehow gained a free kick from was in anyway scientific...

So many of our victories this season have come as a direct result of Allan Saint-Maximin's endeavours, but although he could have scored the opening goal of the game, he wasn't at the heart of this success (one cynic did wryly comment of that early chance that "Joelinton would have scored it").

If they was one difference to the misdeeds of last week (aside from failing to react to going behind) it's that the intelligent runs of Callum Wilson were matched with some service; superlative passes from Ritchie and Almiron set up him and he did what he's paid for (like Pop Robson, you had total confidence that he'd score, said one veteran toon watcher later).

The home side were undoubtedly wrong-footed by the loss of Jonny Evans in the warm-up and their own support pinpointed a variety of alternative plans to compensate, other than the one Rodgers chose of adding Albrighton.

And there's also that old chestnut of players keeping their boots clean ahead of a Wembley final (Leicester face Chelsea in the FA Cup Final next weekend), something we suffered from back in the days when we got to finals....

To lay the blame elsewhere though for this outstanding result and display is to damn our players with faint praise - at the risk of repeating ourselves, to not be watching this game and these goals live is a tragedy. Wilson and Willock may get a warm feeling from social media adulation, but they haven't half missed out on the spontaneous reaction from the stands.

Victory catapulted United from 17th to "the dizzying" heights of 13th (14th within 24 hours) - opening up a 12 point gap on third bottom Fulham.

A single point from the last three games will guarantee top flight football at SJP next season - and anything other than a Fulham victory over Burnley on Monday night will complete the task without our kicking another ball.

That achievement is hardly cause for street parties, but by our standards, the revival since losing at Brighton has been substantial - aside from last week's damp squib against Arsenal. 11 points from a possible 18 looks rather better when considering the previous 11 came from a possible 54.

A bad night for Leicester then on the fifth anniversary of them lifting the Premier League title, but they could still end up in possession of the FA Cup and a place among the elite of Europe next season.

Victory for Newcastle meanwhile came 66 years to the day that they last lifted domestic silverware. 

Like winning the odd battle but never the war, staying up is still no substitute for actual success - no matter how lucrative. That's the task Bruce was set though; the perfect front man for the football club that we are. Mission accomplished, but we never wanted to go to the moon apparently, meaning it isn't lift off United.

Biffa