Newcastle boss Alan Pardew will not allow his players to rest on their laurels after they finally ended their wait for a first Barclays Premier League win of the season at the eighth attempt.
A rare goal from French midfielder Gabriel Obertan was enough to secure a 1-0 victory over Leicester at St James' Park in a game which was delayed by an hour because of problems with a newly-erected big screen.
However, it was all worth the wait for Pardew as his team collected three points for just the sixth time in 27 league games in 2014.
Asked if the win had come as a relief, Pardew said: "When you have been a manager as long as I have and experienced a team that's not functioning, you have to work doubly-hard and try to protect yourself from the pressures that are coming.
"I have had to take a lot of criticism and I have accepted that, you have to. But the most important thing is we can move on from this because this isn't going to be the be all and end all for us, beating Leicester.
"We need to beat some top teams and we need to improve as a team. It will help us this week in our work and instil some confidence in some players who I know can be better than they are showing."
The decisive moment arrived with 19 minutes remaining when Obertan picked up possession wide on the left and cut inside along the edge of the penalty area before thumping a low right-foot shot past keeper Kasper Schmeichel and into the bottom corner.
It was his first goal for the club since October 2012, and his first in the league since his only other at Blackburn almost nine months earlier.
However, Newcastle, for whom the in-from Papiss Cisse was guilty of an extraordinary miss early in the second half, had to fight for their win with keeper Tim Krul and central defender Steven Taylor both making vital interceptions at the death.
For once, Pardew headed home looking forward to watching Match of the Day.
He said with a smile: "I tend to watch even when it's nasty and horrible. It's important for me to keep up to date with what's being said about your team and other teams. But certainly I will watch it with a smile tonight.
"We have been playing under huge pressure, we have been working under huge pressure - you can't get away from it in this city - and it's difficult.
"We really can self-harm sometimes with the pressure we put ourselves under, but on the other hand when we win, we have a euphoria like we had today, and I thought the stadium was terrific today. I can't thank the fans enough."
Opposite number Nigel Pearson, who saw Marc Albrighton hit the bar with a first-half cross, was disappointed to come away empty-handed after a real tussle on Tyneside.
He said: "If you are not creating or taking your chances, it's important to keep a clean sheet and we have been done on the counter-attack from what was a very promising situation for ourselves.
"It's frustrating, there's no doubt about that, but I know that we will get a positive response from the players."
Meanwhile, both managers insisted the delay as engineers worked to secure dressing panels around the 60m screen had not affected their players.
Pearson said: "The players were all very relaxed about that. Both sets of players dealt with the situation very well, as did the club and the officials.
"There was no friction at all. Sometimes these things happen and you have got to deal with them."
Pardew added: "I have to pay tribute to Nigel, he was very calm about it all. He was matter of fact, it was a problem and let's just wait and sort it out. He didn't make a big deal and I thank him for that.
"We were so impatient for the game, it just made it a little bit more difficult, but in the end it didn't affect what was a big day for us."
Source: PA
