Newcastle United 1 Aston Villa 0

THIS summer, the Newcastle United hierarchy will have to take some major decisions that will go a long way towards shaping the future destiny of the club.

Clearly, the appointment of a permanent head coach is a pressing concern. Then, there is the issue of recruitment and the question of how much money Mike Ashley is willing to invest in a squad that has serious deficiencies in a number of areas. Just as important, however, is the subject of player retention and addressing the future of a handful of key players who could well be offered a route out of Tyneside. Chief among those is Papiss Cisse.

Adhering to the age-old description of a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, Cisse has proved impossible to pigeon-hole ever since he arrived in a £9m move from the Bundesliga in January 2012. He has failed to live up to the explosive early impact that saw him score 13 goals in his first 12 appearances in a Newcastle shirt, and there were times when former boss Alan Pardew appeared to have given up on him, such was the amount of time he forced him to spend on the substitutes’ bench in each of the last two seasons.

He will enter the final two years of his contract this summer, a point at which his value will arguably be at its highest. If Ashley and Lee Charnley are going to look to sell Cisse - and given that the striker was heavily linked with both Swansea City and Fenerbahce in the last transfer window, they could well be tempted - this will be the time to do it. Yet as Saturday proved, the 29-year-old remains the likeliest match winner in the Magpies squad.

His 11th league goal of the season settled an otherwise nondescript game that was going nowhere, and underlined his enduring importance to a side that is hardly overrun with attacking options.

Cisse admits to frustrations as he has been shuffled in and out of the team this season, but insists he has no desire to move elsewhere. Whether that decision is effectively taken out of his hands is one of the many imponderables that will eventually become clear in the close season.

“I am here, and I am happy to be a Newcastle player,” said the striker, who converted Daryl Janmaat’s first-half cross to ensure the Magpies produced a winning response to the previous weekend’s embarrassment at Manchester City. “There have been times where it has not been especially easy for me because I have been playing and then I have not been playing.

“It has been quite hard, but I have always kept on working and trying to have a smile on my face. I am happy to be here at Newcastle, although I want to play as well. Whenever I play, I am happy. That is the way I live my life and I am grateful for that.”

The extent of John Carver’s input into this summer’s contractual issues in uncertain, but there can be no doubt about the interim head coach’s admiration for the Senegalese international, who continues to battle against a long-standing knee problem that required him to have metal screws inserted into his leg.

Whereas Pardew appeared reluctant to entreat Cisse with the responsibility of leading the line, Carver sees a player who needs to be the focal point of his side’s attacking. Hence the switch to a 4-4-2 formation and the selection of two orthodox wingers who were charged with the task of getting the ball into the box.

Cisse’s winning goal – a slick piece of control and finishing in the heart of the penalty area – might have come from a cross from Janmaat rather than either of the two wingers, but on a day when clear-cut chances were in relatively short supply, it was telling that the decisive moment came from an old-fashioned delivery from the flank.

It was also significant that the opportunity fell to Cisse. It is hard to imagine any other player on the pitch – an out-of-form Christian Benteke included – who could have converted it as adeptly as Newcastle’s number nine.

“I’ve always had a very close relationship with Papiss,” said Carver. “I don’t know what it is, but something clicked. I’ve always liked him.

“He’s a great character. He’s always smiling, and that’s what I like about him. That’s why I developed a friendship with him. When Alan was here, he’d work with the defence and I’d do work with the attackers, so we are close.

“Strikers have runs – a purple patch, and then a spell when they can’t score. It’s all about staying with the player in the barren times and I always told him he would come through that. He has.

“The key about Papiss is that he scores the important goals. They matter. He’s getting into the right areas, and he has to keep doing that.”

Cisse’s 37th-minute strike was his first goal since the 3-2 win over Everton that marked the end of Pardew’s reign, and secured the first home victory of Carver’s spell in interim charge.

It came towards the end of a lacklustre first half that saw Newcastle struggle to impose themselves on the midfield battle, and which also featured decent saves from Tim Krul to deny Benteke and Scott Sinclair.

The second half saw the hosts more obviously in the ascendancy, although Krul still had to be alert to deny Tom Cleverley after the Villa midfielder cut in from the right-hand side.

Cisse failed to find the target with a headed opportunity to extend Newcastle’s lead, and while it would be a stretch to claim the Magpies were anywhere close to their best, they twice went close to grabbing a second goal in the closing stages.

First, Ryan Taylor whipped in a free-kick that was parried by Brad Guzan, then, from the resultant corner, Guzan’s failure to collect the ball enabled substitute Ayoze Perez to direct a back-post header against the upright.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty,” said Carver. “I said to the guys beforehand, ‘If we win 1-0 and it’s a scrappy goal and a scrappy game, I’ll take that’. We were in a situation where we needed the three points, and there was huge relief in the dressing room.”