Le Fondre shoot down Magpies
Relegation-threatened Reading dragged out-of-sorts Newcastle deeper in the dogfight at the foot of the English Premier League table on Saturday with shock 2-1 victory at St James Park.
Two goals from substitute Adam Le Fondre cancelled out Yohan Cabaye's first-half opener and allowed Reading to move out of the bottom three on goal difference.
They now sit just two points behind the Magpies, who are in the middle of a worrying slump.
It was Reading's first away win of the season and somewhat fittingly it came agaisnt a side managed by Alan Pardew, their former player and the manager generally credited with the start of the club's recent resurgence.
Reading had to soak up a lot of pressure in the first half-hour with goalkeeper Adam Federeci called into action several times to deny Cabaye and Papiss Cisse.
Cabaye, who returned from a two-month absence with a groin injury when he came on as substitute at Norwich last week, had been sorely missed.
But he was controlling things from the centre of the park and it came as no surprise when he opened the scoring in stunning fashion after 34 minutes.
Jobi McAnuff fouled Sylvain Marveaux 20 yards out and Cabaye calmly squared up, took just one step forward and chipped it over the Reading wall and into the top corner.
Newcastle started the second half as they had finished the first, keeping the pressure on the Reading goal but out of the blue, Reading almost fashioned an equaliser as Jonas Gutierrez was inches from turning the ball into his own net when Ian Harte's free-kick clips his knee but it flies past the far post.
That brought Reading to life as first Danny Guthrie missed with a free kick and then Jimmy Kebe knocked the ball down for Pavel Pogrebnyak in the area but he fired high and wide.
Then Reading were on terms as Le Fondre scored an unconventional equaliser which he won't have known much about, with almost his first touch after replacing Guthrie in the 70th minute.
Kebe crossed low from the right and Le Fondre, sliding into the six-yard box, saw the ball richochet into the net off his body from close range, with just a suspicion of handball about it.
Into the last quarter-of-an-hour, Le Fondre increased his reputation as an inspired choice as substitute with a second, collecting Hope Akpan's pass inside the area and firing home low into the bottom right hand corner.
