STRIKER SETS UP WIN

JOB done. It might as well be Rafa Benitez’s mantra this season.

The Newcastle coach does not do romance, even when the occasion is a historic first league meeting against a club whose capacity is 45,000 fewer than St James’ Park.

So the Pirelli Stadium was chalked off with minimum f uss and maximum efficiency in front of 1,700 vocal travelling fans and 6,665 in total.

Burton, who cancelled out one lead, failed to do it again despite a gutsy second-half showing which had Benitez pacing the t echnical area and i n c e ss a n t ly barki ng instructions.

First- half goals from Dwight Gayle and Mohamed Diame, split by a cracker from Lloyd Dyer, kept Newcastle at the top of the table.

But, as Benitez accepted afterwards, the match was all about the result rather than the performance.

He said: “We knew before that it would be difficult. We did well in the first half and we were working so hard in the second half.

“The pitch wasn’t the best. I was pleased with the attitude and the teamwork and the character we showed. Congratulations to them because they were pushing us.

“We are top of the table doing well. We have fantastic games and games to show character.

“We are finding the balance to play nice football and score great goals and to work hard and get three points.” Burton counterpart Nigel Clough admitted disappointment at failing to take a point out of a fixture which he described as “one of the biggest mismatches in English football”.

He added: “The town has a population of 64,000 and their stadium almost holds that.

“But we were outstanding today in effort and there