Stoke boss Mark Hughes was scathing in his criticism of referee Martin Atkinson after his side was reduced to nine men and lost 5-1, having initially taken control of the game thanks to a Oussama Assaidi curling 18-yard effort after half an hour.

"From one of our most senior referees I was absolutely dismayed by his performance," said Hughes.

"We were in control of the game and the referee had a direct impact on the result."

It seemed a relatively innocuous moment when Gary Whelan was booked for kicking the ball away but six minutes later he made a rash challenge on Yohan Cabaye and received his marching orders for a second yellow.

Hughes was incensed, later suggesting a quiet word to his player would have sufficed, and was sent to the stands for taking his frustrations out on a nearby loose ball.

Minutes later Marc Wilson was shown a straight red for wrestling Loic Remy to the ground in the box.

Remy saw his spot kick saved and Stoke broke down the other end but their attack was thwarted by what looked like a handball from Mike Williamson only for referee Martin Atkinson to wave away the Potters' appeals.

Within seconds Newcastle broke back up the pitch with purpose and Remy made no mistake to level the score.

With their numerical advantage it was probably only a matter of time before Newcastle took the lead but there was more controversy when they did.

Stoke failed to deal with Hatem Ben Arfa's cross and Yoan Gouffran gratefully slotted home however there was a strong suspicion the ball had gone out of play.

"By that time we'd come to expect key decisions not to go our way," added Hughes.

There was now no doubt who would win, the only question was how great the winning margin would be.

Remy grabbed his second from a header and Cabaye scored the fourth with sublime side-foot effort.

Even Papiss Cisse got on the score sheet dispatching a penalty past the hapless Thomas Sorensen after Ben Arfa was brought down by Erik Pieters.

The last time Newcastle had 33 points at this stage of the season they qualified for the Champions League and they face pacesetters Arsenal next.

"We've been on an incredible run and we've set ourselves up for an interesting game," said Alan Pardew.

"We'll know more about this team after that match."