CONSISTENCY is a key factor to finishing somewhere near the top of the Premiership, and a lack of it goes a long way to explaining why every May, since 1997, Newcastle have failed to find themselves in the top half of the league.

Since then a win over a top side has more often than not been followed by a loss to a team struggling somewhere near the bottom.

Defeat against the likes of Ipswich, Charlton and Blackburn were seen by many fans as par for the course, and something that had come to be expected of post-Keegan Newcastle.

This term however a steely resistance appears to have been acquired by Bobby Robson's men - an attribute that any team with aspirations of a European spot must have.

Champions like Manchester United are more than capable of going on a 20-match unbeaten run - that is why they are champions.

It is highly unlikely that Newcastle could manage anything like that, and to many four league games unbeaten would hardly warrant thumbing through the record books.

But games against Charlton, Ipswich and Blackburn would all have been lost last season, and Newcastle wouldnt be sitting in the top four.

Robson said: "We have a squad capable of challenging at the top, but it's doubtful we have enough quality to win the championship."

But what they did have on Saturday was a determination not to lose and that was the main reason Graham Souness returned to Lancashire with nothing from the game.

Newcastle didn't play that well. They desperately missed the suspended Craig Bellamy, and they seemed to be suffering a hangover from their Worthington Cup defeat at Chelsea.

But a sprited second-half fightback brought a first ever goal from Frenchman Olivier Bernard and a bizarre Gary Speed header - enough to guarantee all three points.

Newcastle started well with efforts from Shola Ameobi, Gary Speed and Nolberto Solano all going close before the Blackburn midfield were allowed to gain a foothold with Tugay the Turk the fulcrum of all Blackburn's best play.

After Shearer had been gifted a golden chance to hit the 10,000th Premiership goal from a Speed pass on 20 minutes, the skipper hitting his effort straight at Brad Friedel, Blackburn took control.

Just after the half hour a 25 yard effort from Tugay appeared to take a wicked deflection off the appalling St James' Park surface and Given could only deflect the shot off the crossbar.

David Dunn was the quickest to react and he bundled the ball over the line.

Newcastle were struggling and telepathic would not be a word you could use to describe the understanding on Saturday between Shearer and Ameobi.

Without Bellamy Newcastle lacked a lot of their zip, and it was only when pace was injected in the form of substitutes Kieron Dyer and Lomana LuaLua the home side really troubled the Rovers defence.

By half-time there was a clear need for change and Robert Lee's slight thigh strain allowed Dyer a full 45 minutes.

Robson admitted afterwards: "At half-time both Lee and Shola Ameobi were struggling - so it wasn't a case of a clever substitution.

"It was more a case of knowing we had the players who could go on and make a difference."

But the real masterstroke was when Robson replaced Ameobi with LuaLua. Every club should have a LuaLua.

The fans love him for the fact that he can dazzle and frustrate a matter of seconds after coming on.

The £2m signing from Colchester went through his full repertoire on Saturday.

The runs that sometimes appear to terrify his own players almost as much as the opposing defenders. The feints and body swerves that can see him skipping past opponents with ease.

The passes to players who are clearly wearing a different cloured strip to his own. And to cap it all an attempted acrobatic volley that saw him miss the ball by about five yards and end up in a heap on the ground - the crowd loved it all.

Excitement is one thing that LuaLua brings to the games - obvious he is not!

But for all his faults it was his introduction that appeared to change the game more than Dyer's appearance at the start of the second-half.

His direct approach - get the ball, run at defenders and pray - pushed Rovers back and his switched pass from left to right alowed Nolberto Solano to pick out Bernard.

The Frenchman turned and struck a sweet shot from the edge of the box low past Friedel's left hand for what he described as his "best moment in football so far".

Bernard appeared to be going nowhere when Robson farmed him out to Darlington last season but his progress since then has been dramatic.

The fact the Quakers had two Frenchmen of their own may have allowed him to settle far more quickly in the region, and Bernard was spotted back at Feethams earlier this season to renew old acquaintances.

Robson admitted: "We sent him to Darlington as a squad player and he came back a first-teamer.

"He was a different player when he came back. He enjoyed it there and it was good for him to play in the hurly-burly of the third division. We were never going to let him go."

Three minutes after Bernard's strike Gary Speed found himself on the end of Robbie Elliott's miscued cross to score what Souness described as 'poxy' goal.

If Newcastle can maintain a resilience at the back then Robson will take goals however they come - in fact the poxier the better!

Read more about Newcastle United FC here.