Papiss Demba Cisse hit the winner, as Newcastle beat Aston Villa 2-1 in the Premier League on Sunday.
Demba Ba had given Alan Pardew's men the lead, but Ireland captain Robbie Keane levelled for Villa in first-half injury-time.
However, Cisse's magnificent winner with twenty minutes to go lifted Newcastle to fifth in the league table.
Ireland striker Leon Best limped off after 14 minutes with a knee injury, to be replaced by Cisse, the club's new number nine, and he worked Villa goalkeeper Shay Given almost immediately with a glancing header from Ryan Taylor's 16th-minute cross.
The home side took the lead on the half-hour, with Ba slamming home his 16th goal of the season on his first game back after African Cup of Nations duty for Senegal.
Richard Dunne headed away Danny Guthrie's initial cross, but the ball fell to Taylor, who smashed a shot across the face of goal which fell perfectly for Ba to drill home.
Worryingly for Newcastle, Taylor was carried from the field on a stretcher with his right leg in a brace as a result of his collision with Warnock as the pair vied for the loose ball.
Keane was a constant menace in the first half, and deservedly levelled in the fifth minute of injury-time when he turned home Charles N'Zogbia's cross from the left.
Stephen Ireland did not appear for the second half, with Barry Bannan coming on as a substitute, amid speculation that Ireland and manager Alex McLeish had exchanged words on the touchline in the first half.
Cisse had a good chance midway through the second half when he got on the end of Guthrie's cross, but the Sengeal striker headed over the bar.
But his debut goal, the first by a Newcastle debutant since Xisco against Hull in 2008, had the hallmarks of a predecessor in the number nine shirt.
For Cisse's half-volley to net from Jonas Gutierrez's cut-back from the left was Alan Shearer-esque, as he arrowed a left-footed shot past Given.
Cruelly, those Newcastle fans who had idolised Given for 11 years rubbed it in with chants of 'dodgy 'keeper'.
Villa's Gary Gardner went close in the last five minutes, the first with a speculative effort from outside the area that was beaten away by Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul, the next with a header in a goalmouth scramble after Bannan's free-kick from the right.