Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan had cause to be grateful for the efforts of his predecessors as his multi-million strike force, including Aussie striker Mark Viduka, put Reading to the sword in a 3-0 result.
Obafemi Martins, Michael Owen and Viduka were all on the scoresheet to ease the Magpies to a third successive Premier League victory, which all but ends their relegation fears.
Such has been the turnover of managers at St James' Park in recent years that the three men were signed by different managers, with Graeme Souness landing Real Madrid star Owen, Glenn Roeder paying Inter Milan 10 million pounds for Martins and Sam Allardyce recruiting Viduka on a free transfer from Middlesbrough last summer.
But each demonstrated his potency on an afternoon when the quality in front of goal was the difference between the two sides.
Martins set the ball rolling with 18 minutes gone and Owen made it 2-0 just before the break, although Reading could have been forgiven for feeling hard done by after more than playing the part in the opening 45 minutes.
However, Viduka's 58th-minute strike capped a dominant start to the second half by the home side and the points were safe, much to the delight of the home fans among a crowd of 52,179.
Between them the trio have now contributed eight of their side's 10 goals in a four-game unbeaten run, which has dragged the club out of trouble.
Having seen their side dismiss Tottenham with their best performance of the season at White Hart Lane last Sunday, the home fans turned up hoping to witness the rout of a team for whom victory on Tyneside would have sent them leapfrogging over their hosts.
By the time referee Lee Probert's whistle marked the end of the opening 45 minutes they would have been happy enough with the scoreline - but eternally grateful for the quality of Martins and Owen.
In truth, Reading had the better of large portions of the first half as a defence missing Steven Taylor, who was ruled out just before kick-off with a stomach bug, looked shaky in the face of a concerted onslaught from the Royals.
With John Oster and Stephen Hunt providing width and Kevin Doyle and Dave Kitson pulling their markers all over the place, the visitors threatened repeatedly without ever really testing keeper Steve Harper.
Their inability to do so was brought into sharp focus by events at the other end of the pitch where the Magpies made the most of a handful of openings with some stunning finishing.
The game was 18 minutes old when Martins, who scored a fine individual goal at Spurs, chested Nicky Butt's driven pass around Liam Rosenior and rounded Andre Bikey before calmly slotting his ninth goal of the season past Marcus Hahnemann.
Owen perhaps should have added his name to the scoresheet eight minutes before the break when, after Viduka had dummied Joey Barton's cross, he shot just over.
However, he made no mistake six minutes later, spinning away from his marker to meet Habib Beye's pass and lift the ball over the advancing keeper to take his tally for the campaign to 10.
Newcastle's intention to end the game as a contest as quickly as possible was evident from the moment they returned as Keegan's men pinned the visitors back deep inside their own half.
And, in the 58th minute,