WHO says things don’t even themselves up in football? Twenty-eight days after two hugely controversial dismissals condemned them to a 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest, a similarly contested red card provided Newcastle with a welcome helping hand as they beat the same opponents by a slightly bigger margin to return to the top of the Championship table.

Having watched Nicolao Dumitru’s close-range strike cancel out Matt Ritchie’s early deflected opener, the Magpies were in danger of suffering another frustrating night on home turf.

But in a moment of madness on the hour mark, Forest skipper Matt Mills was dismissed for flinging the ball away as he contested referee Keith Stroud’s decision to book him for a foul on Ayoze Perez.

Mills clearly felt he had not committed a bookable offence, and he might well have had a case. However, his reaction was hot-headed in the extreme, and his departure completely changed a game that had become something of a slog for Rafael Benitez’s side.

Within three minutes, Dwight Gayle was volleying Newcastle into the lead, and when the striker claimed his second goal of the night ten minutes from the end, the hosts were able to look forward to finishing 2016 with a one-point advantage over Brighton, whose home game with Cardiff was postponed because of fog.

With no fog on the Tyne, Newcastle were able to chart a clear passage to the top of the table. Remaining there throughout the second half of the season will be a considerable challenge, but at least the Magpies will head into 2017 in a position of considerable strength.

They ended 2015 with successive 1-0 defeats – to Everton and West Brom – and having suffered a one-goal reverse on Boxing Day, went into last night’s game determined to avoid history repeating itself.

The decision to recall Ayoze Perez and Christian Atsu was a reflection of Newcastle’s attacking impotence against Sheffield Wednesday four days earlier, and with the Boxing Day setback making it four home defeats already this season, there was a need for the Magpies to prove that playing on Tyneside was not becoming a hindrance to their promotion aspirations.

Having fallen behind in all four of their home defeats, the hosts would have been desperately hoping for a positive start. That it arrived after just four minutes was an ideal scenario.

Ben Osborn fouled Paul Dummett, enabling Ritchie to step up to fire in a direct free-kick from 25 yards. The ball took a hefty deflection off the Forest wall, completely wrong-footing goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic and enabling Ritchie to claim his fourth league goal of the season.

Buoyed by their early breakthrough, Newcastle completely dominated the opening 20 minutes. Had they scored a second, they might well have been able to cruise to victory, but while Isaac Hayden fashioned two decent opportunities for Gayle, the Championship’s leading goalscorer was unable to convert either.

Both openings saw Gayle direct a header straight at Stojkovic, and while the Forest goalkeeper was also forced to get down well to claim a low effort from Ritchie, Newcastle’s dominance quickly dissipated as they were unable to control the flow of the game as they would have wanted.

The absence of the suspended Jonjo Shelvey was an obvious explanation for their failings either side of the interval, and for the second game in a row, neither Jack Colback nor Hayden were able to exert any kind of controlling influence at the heart of midfield.

Colback in particular was disappointingly ineffective, and if Benitez was considering a move for a central midfielder before Shelvey’s absence flagged up the deficiencies in his squad, he will be even more determined to enter the transfer market now.

With Newcastle losing their grip on the game, Forest were encouraged to commit more players to attack. Dumitru served notice of his threat midway through the first half when he ghosted between Newcastle’s centre-halves to meet Eric Lichaj’s cross, only to drag his shot wide, and the Italian punished some extremely slack defending as he grabbed an equaliser shortly before the half-hour mark.

Matty Cash swung over a cross from the right, Nicklas Bendtner prodded the ball back at the back post, and Dumitru was afforded much too much room on the edge of the six-yard box as he swept home.

Things would have been even worse for the Magpies had Bendtner not directed a shot straight at Karl Darlow shortly after, and while Perez struck the outside of the post when a corner fell into his path on the stroke of half-time, Stojkovic always had his shot from an acute angle covered.

Newcastle needed something to restore their superiority, and it arrived in controversial fashion on the hour mark.

Having been booked for a foul on Perez, an incensed Mills flung the ball at Gayle in disgust. Referee Keith Stroud initially missed the incident, but eagle-eyed fourth official Jeremy Simpson spotted it, and a lengthy consultation between the pair resulted in the issue of a second yellow card, swiftly followed by a red.

Forest boss Philippe Montanier was incensed on the sidelines, although events at the City Ground at the start of the month mean he will not have received any sympathy from the home dug-out. What goes around, comes around eventually.

With an extra man, it was imperative Newcastle made their numerical advantage count, and within three minutes of Mills’ dismissal, the hosts were ahead.

Their second goal of the night owed much to Gayle’s predatory instincts, with the striker latching on to a loose ball as Lichaj made a hash of dealing with Ciaran Clark’s deep cross. The Forest full-back only managed to head the ball high in the air, and Gayle watched it drop intently before hammering a superb first-time volley past Stojkovic.

That was the striker’s 18th goal of the season, and number 19 followed 17 minutes later as Newcastle successfully made the game safe.

Ritchie delivered a low cross from the right-hand side, and while Gayle initially appeared to have miscontrolled the ball, he was still able to bundle it home from inside the six-yard box.