After his brace against Aston Villa, Obafemi Martins was full of praise for Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear.

The Nigeria striker revealed the players are happy with the stand-in boss and told Setanta Sports: "The gaffer is doing his best, for us just to try and push the pace in training.

"It helped us a lot today. We are happy he is here.

"The players have no problem with the gaffer and I hope he stays."

It was a vital victory for the Magpies and Martins continued: "We really needed this match, to put in 100% to win.

"I hope we continue like this.

"It is very important for strikers to be scoring goals and I'm very happy to score two goals.

"I have to thank my team-mates because we really tried."