Robson celebrates with Ameobi double

Bayer Leverkusen 1 Newcastle United 3

While the Premiership's other knight was explaining how he came to injure his most famous player, the other was celebrating his 70th birthday by standing in sub-zero temperatures coordinating Newcastle's most emphatic victory in the Champions' League.

Sir Bobby Robson had once joked that he would not mind dying while watching a football match, such is his love for the game, so this was a perfect way to mark a milestone in a remarkable career. Serenaded by choruses of "Happy Birthday" from the Toon Army, he saw his raw, talented side cruise to victory via three first-half goals in a stadium where both Liverpool and Manchester United's Champions' League ambitions had perished last season, although this is a very different Bayer Leverkusen.

Even though they still need two more victories at least to make the knockout stages, Newcastle coped with the absence of the suspended Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy better than they could have hoped. When flying out to the Rhineland on Sunday, Shola Ameobi asked one of the cabin crew where the plane was going. If he did not know it then, he will never forget Leverkusen now. Having found the net in the Nou Camp in December, the man described by his manager as "a lanky Bambi" has scored more Champions' League goals from open play than Shearer.

When he succeeded Klaus Toppmöller, who was present at the BayArena in the form of an enormous photograph in one of the stands, Thomas Hörster argued that his principal tasks were to impose some on-field discipline and shore up a defence that has not kept a clean sheet in more than two months. The manner in which Ameobi was allowed to head home Newcastle's first from a little over three yards suggested he has plenty of work to do.

Since Hörster had made eight changes to the side whose defeat by Hansa Rostock on Saturday sealed Toppmöller's fate, it was hardly surprising they played like complete strangers. "For the first 10 minutes we were almost non-existent on the pitch," he remarked, "we invited them to score."

Newcastle took the invitation with relish. Lomana LuaLua was allowed to take an age in sending over the fatal cross for Ameobi in the fifth minute and had the ball been played to Jermaine Jenas, who was standing on the penalty spot, the result would have been the same.

If his opening goal had been an act of pure simplicity, Ameobi's second required considerable skill. In the 16th minute, he dispossessed Cris, took the ball round Thomas Kleine, and drove a fierce shot past Jörg Butt from just inside the area. Shearer or Bellamy could not have finished better.

Driven forward by Oliver Neuville, one of only four survivors from the team Toppmöller had led out in the European Cup final in Glasgow nine months before, Leverkusen showed they could still sting. A neat interplay between Yildiray Basturk and Jan Simak put Franca through on goal and the Brazilian delicately lifted his shot over Shay Given's body.

The deep cracks in Leverkusen's own back-four meant Newcastle were restricted to a one-goal lead for a mere six minutes. Neuville tried to keep the ball in play with a back heel, a move which allowed Olivier Bernard a free pass to Laurent Robert, whose low cross was met with a decisive shot past Butt from LuaLua, who celebrated with his usual somersault.

Robson had been worried by Basturk and during the interval he instructed Kieron Dyer to drop deeper to restrict his space. Often, however, Newcastle defended too deep and almost paid an awful price as Thomas Brdaric, given far too much room on the left, wasted a glittering opportunity from half-a-dozen yards. Perhaps because this is an exceptionally young team – eight of the starting line-up were 23 or younger – with only Gary Speed able to provide natural leadership, balls pumped into the area began to sow more doubt and panic than they should have done.

Nevertheless, this was a victory which even if it does not lead to qualification for the quarter-finals will have done much to toughen Newcastle up for future campaigns. Last night was as much about young lads as it was about a grand old man.

Bayer Leverkusen (4-1-4-1): Butt; Preuss (Schneider, h-t), Kleine, Cris (Callsen-Bracker, 71), Ojigwe; Balitsch (Kaluzny, 79); Neuville, Simak, Basturk, Brdaric; Franca. Substitutes not used: Zivkovic, Vranjes, Babic, Starke (gk).

Newcastle United (4-4-2): Given; Hughes, O'Brien, Bramble, Bernard; Jenas, Dyer, Speed, Robert; LuaLua (Chopra, 83), Ameobi (Cort, 83). Substitutes not used: Acuna, Griffin, Kerr, Caldwell, Harper (gk).

Referee: T Hauge (Norway).