For all their intentions to further their playing careers, the Kop never fully forgave Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen for flying the roost.

And how Liverpool enjoyed rubbing it in on the two old boys, who returned to the cauldron - only to be burnt in a convincing 0-3 defeat.

The win keeps Rafael Benitez's side in fourth place on 56 points, three ahead of rivals Everton.

In contrast, the loss marked eight winless Premier League games for Keegan since the Geordies hailed his return in January.

Having vacated the pedestal the Koppites had erected for them, the men dubbed 'King Kev' and 'StMichael' found themselves replaced at Anfield by Kenny Dalglish and Fernando Torres respectively.

And it was Torres, the League's reigning Player of the Month, who stole the show: He had a hand in all three goals to make it six consecutive league and cup wins for his team.

Newcastle did look as though they could weather the wave of attacks.

But it all went up in smoke for the visitors in a devastating two-minute spell before the break.

Jose Enrique gave away a freak opener when he cleared Torres' through ball straight at Jermaine Pennant, only for the ricochet to loop over goalkeeper Steve Harper.

And, on the stroke of half-time, Torres underlined his quality with a clever dummy off Steven Gerrard's defence-splitting pass that completely fooled Harper before slotting into an empty net for his 19th league goal of the campaign.

In the 51st minute, it was all over when Gerrard, deployed in the hole in a 4-4-1-1 system, buried Newcastle by latching on to Torres' well-timed pass before slamming past the advancing goalkeeper.

In the final reckoning, it was a no-contest in the shoot-out between Torres and Owen.

Once hailed as England's boy wonder, the 28-year-old Owen was an isolated figure up front, starved of quality service.

The closest he came to adding to his miserable tally just four league goals in 20 games was in the 56th minute. But he failed to connect with Geremi's cross.

With nine games left, these are desperate times for the Magpies, who have lost their last five away games, scored just thrice since Keegan's return and had just one win in their last 14 games.

How the mighty have fallen.