Hughton eyes promotion as Newcastle cement pole position

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton believes his side are firmly on course for a quick return to the Premier League after they cruised to a 3-0 win over Swansea at St James' Park.

Hughton's side are two points clear of second placed West Bromwich Albion Albion, who crushed Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at Hillsborough.

After being relegated from the top-flight last season, Newcastle look odds-on for a short stay in the second tier. They are eight points clear of the play-off places and destroyed Swansea, who were unbeaten in 11 matches, within 28 minutes on Saturday.

"We are very pleased. It is the most important gap for anybody who is occupying the top two places," Hughton said.

"All we can do is continue to do what we are doing and be hopeful that the other results go for us."

The Magpies were in front in the eighth minute after Fabricio Coloccini flicked Alan Smith's cross on for Marlon Harewood to head past Dorus de Vries. It was 2-0 with 21 minutes gone when Jonas Gutierrez delivered a cross for Peter Lovenkrands to head home. Harewood got his second just seven minutes later with a near post header from Lovenkrands' cross to put the result beyond doubt.

Albion fared even better as they ran riot at struggling Wednesday to put a smile on the face of their usually understated boss Roberto Di Matteo.

"Can you write that I am smiling as otherwise I get accused of never smiling," he said."We put in another great performance and really we managed to finish off the game in the first half with the third goal.

"I have been here for five months and I still believe there is a lot of work to do, but I don't think we are doing too badly.

"Newcastle have a budget of 45 million pounds and we are only two points behind them." Simon Cox, a 1.5 million pounds pre-season signing from Swindon, scored in the 23rd and 30th minute before Jerome Thomas added a third and Chris Brunt got the fourth. Third-placed Leicester are six points behind Albion after Scunthorpe's Martyn Woolford hit a last-gasp goal to force them to settle for a 1-1 draw at Glanford Park.

Nottingham Forest, in fourth place, extended their unbeaten run in the league to 10 games with a 4-1 rout of Doncaster at the City Ground.

LONDON, Sunday, AFP