MARK Hughes hailed another magnificent performance from Ryan Nelsen and his defensive colleagues as Blackburn Rovers turned up the heat on hapless Newcastle manager Graeme Souness.

Nelsen did a brilliant job of snuffing out the record seeking Alan Shearer as Rovers recorded what was only their second ever Premiership victory at St James' Park.

Saturday's 1-0 triumph was Rovers' third successive away win in the Premiership a feat they last achieved in the title-winning season of 1994/95.

And Hughes' side have now conceded just two goals in an eight-match unbeaten run that stretches back to the middle of December.

In contrast, Souness is facing the sack as Newcastle manager after his confidence-stricken side have taken just one point from a possible 15 home and away.

A jubilant Hughes said: "Defensively, we've been very strong of late and Ryan has obviously been a big part of that.

"I thought him and Zurab were both excellent against Alan Shearer, who causes you a lot of problems physically but they dealt really well with him.

"In the full-back areas, I also thought we were very progressive and really tried to take the game to Newcastle from start to finish, so I was delighted with the performance."

Both sides had chances to open the scoring in a delicately poised first half.

Brad Friedel made one stunning stop to deny Albert Luque, but that was then eclipsed by Shay Given's jaw-dropping heroics to thwart Paul Dickov.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 74th minute and it was a controversial goal, too.

Shefki Kuqi towered above Peter Ramage to get in a header that Morten Gamst Pedersen then touched over the line with his hand.

"Apparently (it was handball)," said Hughes.

"I've not seen it, but I would say that. If we've got a break then we are grateful for that, but I think our general play deserved some reward because I thought we were the better team on the day.

"We had a number of clear-cut chances in the first half, especially.

"Obviously, the Paul Dickov chance was the main one it was a great save in fairness to Shay Given, but we really should have scored at that point.

"Then, in the second half, I always thought we were in control of the game.

"We had to withstand a few balls into the box that we managed to get ourselves in the way of, but that's what you have to do when you come to places like St James'.

"In the second half, we really drove well and forced Newcastle to go back towards their own goal so, in the end, I thought we looked the stronger side."