SUBSTITUTE Mikel Merino headed in his first goal for Newcastle United to lift Rafael Benitez’s men up to sixth in the Premier League.

While everyone awaits news about whether Mike Ashley’s wish to sell up before Christmas is granted, Merino arrived on cue with four minutes remaining to secure three points.

Newcastle were hardly at their best on a difficult afternoon in wet conditions against a hard-working and organised Crystal Palace, but by the time the whistle had blown at the end that mattered little.

And Spaniard Merino was the man to deliver the crucial blow, heading in his first goal since moving from Borussia Dortmund to lift Newcastle up to sixth.

Benitez’s message beforehand was to forget about the takeover talk and concentrate on getting results in the Premier League. To do that he sent out the same starting line-up for the second weekend in a row, with Dwight Gayle missing from the bench because of injury.

But Newcastle, who scored two at Southampton, never looked threatening enough on the Palace goal, with goalkeeper Julian Speroni not tested once during that opening period.

The nearest Newcastle initially came to scoring was when Christian Atsu got away from his man and worked himself an opening from a tight angle only for his shot to find the side-netting. That was 11 minutes before the break.

Other than that Palace were often the more dangerous in the final third until it came to actually shooting on goal.

Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend, initially booed when he touched the ball on his first return since leaving, regularly drove at the home defence; the Eagles too, though, didn’t test Rob Elliot enough.

He got down low to hold a Jeffrey Schlupp cross-shot, but other than that Palace’s best two chances saw Schlupp roll an effort wide from a decent position and Zaha miss the target with a back post close-range header.

What made the first half relatively decent considering there weren’t any goals was the edge to it after Yohan Cabaye had been booked for a wild tackle on DeAndre Yedlin. Even the bite disappeared after the restart.

In terms of chances Atsu, the liveliest Newcastle player without being brilliant, went close again with wayward effort, while Townsend curled an effort over at the other end after Palace were gifted possession again.

Mohamed Diame, after he was introduced for the ineffective Ayoze Perez, also saw an effort from distance well held by Speroni but they were all just half chances.

Despite Newcastle’s slight improvements, Palace still had the best chance of the second half until the opener. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, however, pulled his effort wide of the far post when he ought to have hit the target in the area.

But then, with game heading for a draw, Merino arrived to meet Ritchie’s corner from the left and the towering header looped over Speroni and into the roof of the net to seal the points.

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-2-3-1): Elliot; Yedlin, Lascelles, Lejeune, Manquillo; Hayden (Merino 55), Shelvey; Ritchie, Perez (Diame 65), Atsu; Joselu (Mitrovic 78). Subs: Clark, Murphy, Darlow (gk), Gamez.

CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Speroni; Ward, Dann, Sakho, van Aanholt; McArthur (Sako 88), Milivojevic, Cabaye, Schlupp; Townsend, Zaha (Loftus-Cheek 76). Subs: Tomkins, Hennessey (gk), Fosu-Mensah, Puncheon, Riedewald.