Wales international Craig Bellamy lifted the gloom around St James' Park with a first-half double as Newcastle United crushed NAC Breda 5-0 in the first leg of their UEFA Cup first round tie on Wednesday.

Bellamy's goals, his first for the club since March, were added to by Titus Bramble before captain Alan Shearer and Darren Ambrose completed the rout of the Dutch side with late strikes.

It was the perfect pick-me-up for under-pressure manager Bobby Robson with Newcastle second bottom of the English premier league after failing to register a league win all season.

Bellamy opened the scoring in the 31st minute when he capitalised on Shearer's flick-on before calmly lobbing goalkeeper Gabor Babos from 15 metres.

Bellamy doubled the lead in the 37th minute when he rounded off a superb seven-pass move out of defence by slotting Laurent Robert's square ball into an empty net.

Bramble scored his first goal for Newcastle since moving from Ipswich in August last year when he powerfully headed in Robert's corner at the near post in the 59th minute.