Newcastle climbed to fifth place in the Barclays Premier League after a 2-0 victory at Ewood Park over Steve Kean's struggling Blackburn who missed a number of chances to salvage at least a draw from the encounter.
New signing Anthony Modeste made his debut for the hosts who were still without the want-away Christopher Samba while Fabricio Coloccini returned from injury for the visitors.
After a quiet start Newcastle went ahead in the 12th minute when Ryan Taylor's speculative 25-yard effort took a vicious deflection off Scott Dann and looped beyond Paul Robinson into the Blackburn net. Rover almost hit back immediately when Gael Givet turned a driven Pedersen corner goalwards but Danny Simpson was on hand to clear the ball off the Newcastle line.
Rovers began to dominate after that and it only looked a matter of time before the equaliser would come. Leon Best headed against his own crossbar on 38 minutes as he struggled to clear a corner and then Modeste shot over when a mix-up in the Newcastle defence left him with the goal at his mercy.
Simpson was then adjudged to have fouled Modeste in the box on 43 minutes, but Tim Krul got down well to save David Dunn's weak penalty to leave Steve Kean scratching his head to see his side go in behind at the break.
Rovers continued to push forward as Newcastle rode their luck after the break. Modeste, Scott Dann and Mauro Formica all missed decent chances to earn what would have been a deserved share of the spoils. James Perch then produced a great block to keep out a Givet shot after Krul failed to collect an inswinging corner.
But the result was settled in the final minute when Gabriel Obertan applied a clinical finish to a sweeping break out of defence to break Blackburn hearts and take the Magpies back into the Champions League qualification race.