NEWCASTLE UNITED’S latest visit to Hull City was a lot less eventful than their previous outing on Humberside – no ifs, no butts.

While Alan Pardew’s headbutt on David Meyler stole the headlines on a day where the Magpies ran out 4-1 winners last March, John Carver managed to steer clear of altercations on the touchline over the weekend and oversee victory, repeating the three-goal margin but improving on it by keeping a clean sheet.

The win was Carver’s first since taking over from Pardew, after being given the job on a permanent basis last week, and the Magpies head coach feels that their season starts here.

“I think it make a difference when you know the head coach is the guy who is going to lead the team for the rest of the season. You look for leadership from the top,” said Carver, after goals from Remy Cabella, Sammy Ameobi and Yoan Gouffran saw Newcastle ease past the Tigers.

“The lads have been fantastic, but there were still doubts in everyone’s minds. Not just the players, but the staff as well. Once you make something permanent, then people can get themselves focussed and I think you could see that at Hull.

“It was important that they knew I want this job. One of the first things I did was to get them all together as a group and said that this was not an interim position.

“If you look at the title it says head coach, not interim head coach. I said to them that we had 16 games, at that time, to play and our season now starts now.

“It starts for everyone, the new players coming back into the team, the injured lads, and the staff around me.

“They have come out publicly and said what they think about me, but it’s okay talking about it, the evidence is in the performance and we got that on Saturday.”

Newcastle took their time to get into the match on a bitterly cold lunchtime on Humberside, but they took the lead on 41 minutes somewhat against the run of play, with Hull shading the early exchanges.

The Magpies had shown flashes of inspiration, through Cabella and Ayoze Perez in a front three alongside Ameobi, but their trickery came to nothing until Newcastle’s summer signing Cabella reacted quickly to a short pass by Andrew Robertson, cut on to his left foot and rifled past Allan McGregor.

Robertson had the first chance of the game when he stung Tim Krul’s hands with a first-minute shot, but save for a clearance off the line by Fabricio Coloccini from a Curtis Davies header on 18 minutes, Newcastle grew with stature.

Hull thought they had equalised on the stroke of half-time when Ahmed Elmohamady looked to have headed home from a set-piece, but the assistant referee spotted that the Egyptian had punched Gaston Ramirez’ free-kick into the back of the net.

Newcastle got the second half off to a perfect start when Ameobi, who had contributed little of note in the opening 45 minutes, collected a pass 40 yards out, carried the ball a few yards then unleashed a rasping drive that dipped and swerved past McGregor.

The Scottish international made a smart save from Perez on 59 minutes when the Spaniard prodded goalwards as Newcastle looked to kill the game completely.

The Tigers should have reduced the deficit on 64 minutes when Jelavic managed to shank wide when Krul’s parry from Ramirez’s shot fell into his path.

There were no further signs of life from Steve Bruce’s Hull as Newcastle bossed the midfield, stroking passes around at will, and it was no surprise when Gouffran, on as a substitute, jinked past Davies and fired home via a large deflection off Elmohamady.

Newcastle did not have to be at their best to beat Hull, but Carver was at least relieved that his side got their rewards after some encouraging performances since taking over.

“I think that performance has been coming. I’ve seen a little bit of a difference,” said Carver. “I am delighted with the win. If I am brutally honest, my emotions are in my face. I very rarely tell lies, but when I am lying, you can see it in my face. So you can see I am a happy man.

“I am known as the grumpy one because when Alan was here I went around them like the bad cop. Now I’m quite controlled. It’s Stoney [Steve Stone] who is the bad cop.”

Carver celebrated with the players on the pitch at the KC Stadium, and took time to thank the fans who had travelled down from Tyneside.

Carver added: “Certain things motivate me. It wasn’t nice going over to the fans at Leicester. But I’m a big guy and took it on the chin.

“So I thought let’s go across and celebrate with the players and to thank the fans because their support is massive to us.”