AS Newcastle United’s players embarked on a lap of honour in the wake of Monday’s emotionally-charged win over Arsenal, a small group of figures stood laughing and joking in front of the entrance to the tunnel in the Milburn Stand.

Amanda Staveley, with a black-and-white scarf draped around her lime green jacket, waved to the Newcastle fans filling the gangways high above her. Her husband and fellow director, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, was deep in conversation with Ant and Dec, who had been invited down to the touchline to meet the players. Jamie Reuben, another key figure in Newcastle’s new ownership group, posed for selfies with the crowd behind him, along with Majed al-Sorour, the head of Saudi Golf who was appointed to the board last week.

As the roars of appreciation began to ripple around all four stands of St James’ Park, the owners were persuaded to follow on behind the players and staff. Little more than six months after replacing Mike Ashley, their acceptance as custodians of the club had been well and truly confirmed.

It is hard to over-emphasise the extent to which the new-found sense of togetherness at St James’ stands in marked contrast to the divisive negativity that characterised the vast majority of the Ashley era.

Yes, there are ongoing misgivings about Newcastle’s links to the Saudi Arabian state. But whether it is their public support of the women’s team and NUFC Foundation or their more private backing of Eddie Howe and his players at a stage of the season when it looked as though things were not going their way, Staveley, Ghodoussi and Reuben have not put a foot wrong when it has come to bringing Newcastle United back together.

The players have done their bit on the pitch, and Howe and his fellow coaches have performed superbly since replacing Steve Bruce and the previous coaching set-up in the autumn. But the importance of Newcastle’s ownership group in terms of transforming the club, both on and off the pitch, should not be overlooked.

“They care,” said Howe, who has always encouraged as much involvement as possible from those above him. “They care deeply. They care about the players, they care about the staff and they want to be involved and be seen. They want to be actively helping, and I think they were that way right from the start.

“One of my abiding memories is that after the Cambridge game (when Newcastle lost in the FA Cup third round), they came in to see me and the staff. Of course, that was a really low moment for us. So, I think it meant a lot for us to see them coming in and supporting us, and saying, ‘Come on, we go again’.

“The week after that was Watford (when Newcastle could only draw 1-1), and they supported us again. When you look back after a successful period, you look at those moments and say, ‘That was so important’. So, we must all say a big thank you to them.”

At the start of the season, St James’ Park was a difficult environment for Newcastle’s players to play in. The discontent with Ashley’s ownership was palpable, along with a general sense of unhappiness at the direction in which Bruce was leading the team on the field.

The draws with Southampton and Leeds at the start of the season felt like low points, and the mood only began to change when Ashley was removed in the build-up to October’s defeat to Spurs.

Things have not really looked back since, with the work of the ‘Wor Flags’ group to arrange pre-match flag displays helping generate a sense of passion and excitement that feeds its way down to the pitch.

As Mikel Arteta was forced to concede in the wake of Monday’s game, St James’ Park is no longer an easy place for opposition teams to visit, something Howe is determined to continue harnessing next season.

“The support (at the Arsenal game) was absolutely incredible,” he said. “The atmosphere around the stadium was something I’ve not really experienced before. It’s a huge weapon for us, and we have to use it as much as we can.

“We have to inspire our crowd. We have to have the supporters coming into the ground desperate to see us play, desperate to know what’s going to happen in the match, and almost guaranteed they’re going to see a team going all-out to win the game and play in the way that we want to.

“I think you saw that from the team (on Monday) – we were very front-foot, and not just for fragmented parts of the game, but for pretty much the whole of the match. It was an amazing physical effort from the players."