Loic Remy’s early strike sealed a hard-fought victory for Newcastle against Tottenham at White Hart Lane but it was goalkeeper Tim Krul who will deservedly take the plaudits.

With all of the pre-game talk about Spurs stopper Hugo Lloris missing out after being knocked unconscious at Everton last weekend, it was the Magpies’ own No 1 who produced heroics to earn his side a 1-0 win. Remy’s well-taken strike in the 13th minute – his seventh goal in his last seven Barclays Premier League appearances – put the visitors ahead before his Dutch team-mate took centre stage, blocking Spurs at every turn and producing a new Premier League record of 14 saves in one match.

The opening seemed to stir Newcastle into life as Remy had a sight of goal shortly afterwards, but Tottenham defender Vlad Chiriches was on hand to block the France forward’s shot behind for a corner.

Friedel just about dealt with the resultant set-piece and then had to push Yohan Cabaye’s effort behind as the visitors came into the match. But Friedel could do nothing about Remy’s strike moments later as Yoan Gouffran robbed Paulinho of possession and played a through-ball to the QPR loanee, who took the ball around the American goalkeeper and slotted home.

Spurs chased an instant response but no one could get on the end of an inviting Christian Eriksen cross and Paulinho blazed over as a quick equaliser eluded them.

Jan Vertonghen was the next to try his luck for Andre Villas-Boas’ side but his low effort was easy for Krul to collect.

The Belgium international then arrowed a low free-kick just wide of Krul’s left post.

Soldado forced Krul into a full-stretch save as his flicked header from Eriksen’s free-kick sent the goalkeeper flying high to his right.

Eriksen stung the palms of Krul with a powerful long-range effort, with the early afternoon sunshine making the save less routine. Shola Ameobi had the ball in the back of the net after 37 minutes but he had been flagged offside as Newcastle adjusted to a counter-attacking approach.

Spurs were inching closer and closer to an equaliser but were yet again thwarted by wonderful goalkeeping from Krul. This time the Holland international flung himself across goal to tip Paulinho’s curling shot away from goal. Chiriches did not see out the half for Spurs after the defender was left with a bloody nose as he challenged for a high ball inside the Newcastle penalty area.

The second half followed on from where the first had ended, with Krul again denying everything thrown at him by Spurs, using his legs to keep out Eriksen’s stab towards goal. A deflected Sigurdsson free-kick again brought out the best out of Krul, who was sharp enough to block Younes Kaboul’s follow-up with Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa then clearing ahead of the onrushing Tottenham cavalry.

With the hosts on top it was Soldado who passed up the next opportunity as he fired wide after latching on to Kyle Walker’s cross.

Newcastle showed they were still a threat at the other end as they broke forward through Moussa Sissoko, whose shot was pushed away by Friedel.

Jermain Defoe was introduced with 22 minutes remaining as Villas-Boas decided to play with two forwards, Sigurdsson making way. Andros Townsend cut in and arrowed a shot towards goal which Krul could only push away this time, but he got enough on the ball to keep it out of the path of the fast-approaching Soldado.

Brazil midfielder Paulinho hit straight at Krul when well-placed inside the penalty area as time started to run out for the home side.

Even when Spurs did manage to beat Krul they found the woodwork blocking their path as Vertonghen’s back-post header hit the crossbar, ensuring that a goalkeeper on the pitch rather than one playing no part took at least a share of the headlines.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew heaped praise on Krul for his inspired performance which Tottenham counterpart Andre Villas-Boas felt was the only difference between the sides. Asked if it was that was the best goalkeeping performance he had seen, Magpies boss Alan Pardew said: ‘Yeah, it was one of them. Wow. I think he is the best goalie in Holland and I think he proved that today.

‘His performance level has not needed to be high recently as we have not come under that sort of pressure too often, but we did today.

‘Certainly in the second half Tottenham really turned up the heat and he answered almost everything. It was an unbelievable performance.’ Tottenham boss Villas-Boas echoed those sentiments, having seen his players thwarted time and again. ‘Well, it was difficult to take,’ the Portuguese said. ‘Obviously we have to look at ourselves and recognise that our first half was very, very poor.

‘That is the negative part of the game and the positive part is that we have reacted so strongly. I think that the result is unfair, given what we created, particularly in the second half.

‘I think Tim Krul was the key to the game. He made the difference. ‘Newcastle made a good start and we made a poor start ourselves, so we’ve responded with a good second half but that 45-minute advantage was probably the blow for us. ‘Our disappointment comes from that, although I still think had one of those opportunities gone in we would have won the game.’

Krul, though, was not to be beaten, producing fantastic saves to deny Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Gylfi Sigurdsson amongst others.

The save from Soldado’s first-half header was Pardew’s favourite, although there were so many he admitted it was hard to keep track of them all. Pardew was also quick to praise his strike force of Shola Ameobi and Remy, who netted his seventh goal in as many league matches. ‘We did similar to what we did when we won against Chelsea,’ Pardew added.

‘I thought Remy had a great chance before he scored and I was a little bit surprised he did not take that because he really is in great form.

‘But the second one he made no mistake with and it gave us a platform for the win.

‘He has got a silkiness to the way he moves and a nice kind of gait, the way he runs and everything. He really is a classy-looking performer, which is great if you back it up with goals.

‘It kind of elevates him and he stands out, but I thought Shola Ameobi was terrific in the 60 minutes he played. He was as important as Loic, I thought.’

—Daily Mail