A JUBILANT Jonjo Shelvey feels Newcastle United’s six-goal demolition of QPR has sent a powerful message to the Magpies’ promotion rivals.

Newcastle closed to within a point of Championship leaders Huddersfield Town as they ripped QPR apart to record the joint-biggest league away win in their history.

Shelvey scored twice in the win, with Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Ciaran Clark and Grant Hanley claiming the other goals, but it was the manner of the Magpies’ win rather than the margin that was particularly impressive.

Newcastle played with a style and swagger that suggests they are comfortable with their tag of promotion favourites, and Shelvey expects the rest of the Championship to have paid close attention to his side’s exploits.

“Yes, this performance sends out a message to the league to be honest,” said the midfielder, who has now scored three goals in the opening seven league games.

“We needed to go and put down a marker. We’ve won six on the bounce now and it’s a real eye-opener for the other teams in the league.”

Shelvey was at the heart of the action throughout, spraying long-range passes around the field and constantly looking to score from the edge of the area.

His first goal owed much to a hefty deflection off QPR defender Steven Caulker, but his second was a truly magnificent effort that saw him pick up the ball from Perez and curl a sensational long-range effort into the top right-hand corner.

“The first was a little bit lucky to be honest with you,” said Shelvey. “It took a bit of a deflection and it seemed to take about two minutes to go in!

“But I think the first goal helped us in terms of allowing us to get a foothold in the game and it allowed us to score a lot more.

“Then I think the third goal killed the game off to be honest with you and allowed us to go on and win emphatically.

“For the second, I quite often try that sort of effort in training and 99 per cent of the time they don't come off! But if you don't try them, you won't score.

“I'm not one to shy away from a shot so I'm just grateful it nestled in the far corner like it did.”

Such an emphatic victory will create pressure for Newcastle moving forward, with most neutrals now expecting a similarly dominant display when Wolves visit St James’ Park on Saturday.

Rafael Benitez will be doing everything he can to ensure his players keep their feet on the ground, but Shelvey feels a high level of expectation is par for the course when you are wearing a Newcastle shirt.

“Playing for Newcastle in this league, you're going to have pressure on you. If you can't deal with that then you shouldn't really be playing for this club to be honest with you.

“I think handling it starts from the manager to be fair, he's very experienced. Even at half-time when we were 2-0 up, he was speaking at length about how the game wasn't finished and that we needed the third goal to kill it off. Thankfully, we got that.”