STEVE McCLAREN admits Rob Elliot got Newcastle United through "a crisis" by declaring himself available for Saturday's game at Bournemouth - and then producing a match-winning display between the sticks.

Elliot was a major doubt in the build-up to this weekend's game at the Vitality Stadium after he suffered a recurrence of a long-standing thigh injury in the goalless draw with Stoke City.

However, after insisting that he wanted to play, the Irishman made a string of crucial saves as Newcastle claimed a crucial 1-0 victory that enabled them to clamber out of the bottom three.

Elliot denied Josh King on three separate occasions before the interval, and also made an excellent save from former Newcastle midfielder Dan Gosling, before fashioning another fine stop to deny Matt Ritchie at the start of the second half.

McClaren said: "People talk about goalkeepers getting you points, and a top goalkeeper can get you 15-20 points for performances like that.

"Missing Tim Krul, we talked about that - he's (Elliot) got to step in and do it. Last week (against Stoke), he made a great save and got us a point in one respect. Here, he's got us all three points, without a shadow of a doubt. And that's what you want from your goalie.

"He was so positive from Monday because we were wondering what to do. He was so positive to play that we gave him every chance, every opportunity, and on Friday he trained well. I thought he was excellent.

“We'll wrap him up in cotton wool for the next two weeks - that's what we'll have to do. Karl Darlow is not too far away from it, but Rob's been heroic in the last two games to get us through what was, two weeks ago, a big crisis.

"We need more of that. I said at half-time that character would win us this game, and it did. Tremendous.”

Nevertheless, McClaren was honest enough to admit that Newcastle were somewhat fortunate to emerge from the south coast with their first away win since January.

Bournemouth dominated possession and carved out a string of chances, while Ayoze Perez scored from Newcastle's only shot on target all game.

However, after seeing his side claim just one point from bright displays against Sunderland and Stoke, McClaren felt it was time the Magpies finished on the right side of some luck.

He said: "We've been playing so well recently in terms of performance, in terms of football. The last four games, performances have been great, but we've not got the rewards for it

"I think we've deserved that for the last few weeks. We didn't get the performance (against Bournemouth) in terms of what we did with the ball, and yeah, that just shows that football at times can be a bit of...you don't know.

"At some times during a season you get that, a result which makes you say, 'How did we get that?' But we got it through character, endeavour, organisation and perserverance.

"After an hour, we were never going to score the second goal - we couldn't keep the ball long enough - so we more or less shored up and defended for our lives. When we did that, we got through it."