Liverpool kept the pressure on Manchester United in the race for automatic Champions League qualification as 10-man Newcastle were defeated at St James' Park.

Trailing 2-0 long before half-time after Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard - with his 18th goal of the season - had struck, the Magpies fought back to go into the interval just one behind at the break courtesy of Shola Ameobi's header.

But their hopes of a comeback were ripped apart within seven minutes of the second half when Jean-Alain Boumsong was dismissed for a foul on Crouch inside the box and Djibril Cisse converted the penalty to increase the pain.

French defender Boumsong will now miss Wednesday night's FA Cup quarter-final trip to Chelsea, while a second successive Barclays Premiership defeat and a first for caretaker boss Glenn Roeder at St James' Park confirmed their recent revival is over.

Referee Mike Riley left the north-east to a chorus of boos from the bulk of the 52,302 crowd, which included England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson, but in truth, Newcastle had been well beaten by a side brimming with confidence having at last rediscovered their scoring touch.

Writing in his programme notes, Roeder emphasised the importance of scoring the first goal in a Premiership game after his side's disastrous start at Manchester United seven days ago, although it appeared his players had not taken the message to heart.

The game was only 10 minutes old when Newcastle were hit by a sucker punch when 6ft 7in Crouch was allowed to get between Boumsong and Peter Ramage to head Jan Kromkamp's deep cross past the helpless Shay Given.

It was not so much the fact that the visitors deserved to be in front after a lively start which will have annoyed Roeder, but more that they went behind to the most obvious of ploys.

However, his concerns were to mount as the visitors, playing with Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia and Daniel Agger in a back three with Kromkamp and Stephen Warnock operating as wing-backs, dominated.

They were slick and progressive in possession and miserly in defence as they got men behind the ball when they lost it, stifling the Magpies in midfield to leave goalkeeper Jose Reina largely untroubled.

It took the home side more than 20 minutes to fashion a meaningful opening, skipper Alan Shearer blasting wide from 20 yards and then youngster Charles N'Zogbia giving Reina a scare with a shot which he needed two attempts to claim.

However, just as the home side started to look like the might force their way back into the game, they fell further behind.

Shearer appeared to have been fouled as the Magpies attacked the Liverpool penalty area, but Riley, who had previously blown repeatedly for niggling incidents, allowed play to continue, and the home side were punished with devastating effect.

Cisse's cross was chested down to Crouch by Gerrard, and the striker laid the ball off first time for his England team-mate to fire it unerringly past Given.

It looked, just as it had at Old Trafford last week, like game over, but with four minutes of the half remaining, Ameobi gave his side hope.

Having found himself on the wrong end of a series of offside decisions, he timed his run to perfection to meet Scott Parker's cross unopposed and head firmly past Reina.

Newcastle emerged for the second half determined to drag themselves level, but their hopes were dashed within seven minutes.

Boumsong missed his kick when trying to clear ahead of Crouch and compounded the error by bundling the striker to the ground inside the box.

Referee Riley pointed immediately to the spot and to rub salt into the wound produced a red card.

Cisse stroked the penalty home to make it 3-1 and was promptly booked for over-celebrating, and he was spoken to once again within minutes for appearing to gesture towards a section of the home fans.

The 10 men battled bravely for a way back into the game, Celestine Babayaro wastefully slicing a 62nd-minute cross over the bar after being played in by Nolberto Solano.

Roeder replaced Ameobi with Kieron Dyer on 62 minutes and Crouch departed for Luis Garcia within seconds.

Cisse might have made things worse for the home side, but sliced wide in 65 minutes, and Luis Garcia failed to make the most of a similar position four minutes later.

Given spectacularly denied first substitute Xabi Alonso and then Kromkamp as time ran down, but both saves were by then irrelevant.

Teams:

Newcastle Given, Ramage, Boumsong, Elliott, Babayaro, Solano,Parker, Emre (Clark 90), N'Zogbia (Bowyer 28), Shearer,Ameobi (Dyer 62).

Subs Not Used: Harper, Moore.

Sent Off: Boumsong (51).

Booked: Ramage, Bowyer.

Goals: Ameobi 41.

Liverpool Reina, Agger, Hyypia (Fowler 90), Carragher,Warnock, Kromkamp, Hamann, Gerrard (Alonso 74), Kewell, Cisse,Crouch (Luis Garcia 63).

Subs Not Used: Dudek, Traore.

Booked: Cisse, Agger, Carragher.

Goals: Crouch 10, Gerrard 35, Cisse 52 pen.

Att: 52,302

Ref: M Riley (W Yorkshire).