Hopeless Newcastle United slumped to their fifth straight defeat when they lost out 2-1 to Blackburn Rovers in their Premiership clash on Saturday.

After a quiet opening, Blackburn took the lead on the half hour mark after Christopher Samba converted from a free kick and the match was all but over in the 41st minute when Roque Santa Cruz doubled the lead for the visitors. Newcastle tried to stage a late come back through Michael Owen after the England striker converted from the penalty spot five minutes into the second half but Blackburn held on to claim all three points from the tie.

Interim coach Joe Kinnear spent his first match in charge of Newcastle in the stands with the former Nottingham Forest manager yet to serve his two match touchline ban for calling the referee for Nottingham's match against Gillingham as a "Coco the clown".

With morale among the players at its lowest, it was of no surprise that Blackburn dominated the possession at the start of the match, but had little to show for their efforts until the 31st minute when Samba lost his marker to head home Carlos Villanueva's free kick to put his side in the lead.

Blackburn doubled their lead in the 41st minute when Santa Cruz rose high to head Brett Emerton's cross past Shay Given to score his second league goal of the season. Newcastle tried to put up a fight in the second half and succeeded to an extent as they reduced the deficit in the 50th minute when Owen was fouled inside the area by Nelsen and made no mistake from the penalty spot.

Geremi had a great chance to put Newcastle level late in the game after a brilliant run by Damien Duff but the former Chelsea midfielder failed to convert from close range, with the ball bouncing clear off his knee as Blackburn hung on to register their third league win of the season.