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Long before the end Burnley were down to 10 men, well en route towards a sixth straight Premier League defeat and concerned, largely, with damage limitation.
Yet to their considerable credit, Scott Parker’s side never surrendered and somehow even dragged themselves back into things thanks to Zian Flemming’s late penalty.
Anyone who believes Parker should be replaced at Turf Moor might have thought again had they seen Flemming spurn a glorious chance to equalise in the dying seconds.
After that Burnley’s manager looked close to tears on his latest return to a ground where he once wore black and white stripes with some distinction in Newcastle’s midfield.
Lucas Pires’s 43rd minute sending off ensured Parker’s day would end badly but relief looked Eddie Howe’s overriding post match emotion after Flemming’s failure to convert a free-kick spared his players considerable embarrassment against a club he once managed.
Newcastle’s lack of invention in open play left them overly dependent on attacking set plays and they duly took the lead from one.
It is rare for players to score directly from corners but Bruno Guimarães accomplished that tricky feat thanks to a whipped in-swinger that swerved wickedly before dropping straight into Martin Dubravka’s net.
Burnley’s goalkeeper was making his first return to St James’ Park since leaving Newcastle during the summer and must have rued the inefficiency that had seen five Burnley corners come to nothing whereas his old team had scored from their first.
Dubravka is still cross with Howe for dropping him for last season’s Carabao Cup final after persuading him to pull out of a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia at the 11th hour last January and he made some very decent saves here.
It was not the Slovakia goalkeeper’s fault that his task became considerably harder when Pires was shown a straight red card for felling Anthony Elanga just outside the area when the right winger was clean through.
As if that was not tough enough Lesley Ugochukwu’s handball in first-half stoppage time prefaced Anthony Gordon doubling Newcastle’s advantage from the penalty spot after sending Dubravka the wrong way. Gordon had earlier used his left foot to graze a post but now he had left Parker’s players badly bruised.
After a bright opening featuring plenty of intelligent passing and movement Burnley had taken a wrong turn and could only rue a handful of missed first-half half chances. Parker’s cause was further undermined by the perhaps pivotal early moments when Aaron Ramsdale escaped unscathed after making a couple of mistakes in the home goal.
During those early exchanged Howe’s side had frequently been slapdash in possession and looked horribly jaded ahead a forthcoming eight day period featuring Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen and next Sunday’s long awaited north-east derby at Sunderland.
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They livened up appreciably after not merely the goalkeepers but the 35th minute booking collected by Kyle Walker that dictated the former England right-back could no longer afford to take too many risks in a hitherto rather compelling duel with Gordon.
The England winger’s final act was to direct a shot against the crossbar before being withdrawn in a double substitution featuring his replacement by Joelinton and Yoane Wissa taking Nick Woltemade’s place.
Seventy four minutes were on the clock, and more than three months on from his £55m transfer deadline day move from Brentford Wissa was finally making his Newcastle debut. A knee injury sustained on international duty with DR Congo in early September has since sidelined Newcastle’s latest No 9 but now he was finally able to impress his new public with a series of deft touches and some clever link play.
Jacob Murphy, making a rare appearance for Howe’s first XI following his £40m summer move from Aston Villa struggled at times in midfield and it was stoppage time handball that led to the Burnley penalty converted by visiting substitute Flemming.
Incredibly, Flemming might well have equalised in the final seconds but somehow, and fractionally, failed to get his head to Marcus Edwards’s highly inviting free-kick.
All that remained was for Dubravka to soak up applause from all sides of the ground as he was the last man to leave the pitch that used to be his home.
