Sam Allardyce returned to haunt former club Newcastle United by guiding West Ham United to a 1-0 win that took the London club into sixth place in the English Premier League soccer table.
On an afternoon of reunions in the northeast, former Newcastle captain Kevin Nolan claimed the only goal of the game eight minutes before half-time to give Allardyce’s side only their second away win of the campaign.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, who was sacked by West Ham in 2006, saw Demba Ba go close with a header that was clawed off the line by visiting goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen. The result left Newcastle in 10th place.
A dull first half at St James’ Park sprung to life in the 37th minute when Nolan popped up to put the visitors in front.
Joey O’Brien’s shot from outside the box was heading wide until Nolan poked out his foot to steer the ball into the net and break the deadlock.
Newcastle were quick to threaten at the other end, with Shane Ferguson drawing an impressive block from O’Brien and Hatem Ben Arfa seeing a shot hit the side netting after accumulating a couple of deflections en route.