Gabriel Obertan's goal 18 minutes from time condemned Leicester City to a third Premier League defeat of the season at Newcastle.
Kick-off was delayed by an hour at St James' Park due to safety fears over a problem with the new television screen inside the stadium.
The first half proved a distinctly scrappy affair with the only real chances falling to Newcastle skipper Fabio Coloccini and City's Matty James but both failed to make them count.
Neither could compare to Papiss Cisse's calamitous miss in the second half when the striker missed an open goal after taking the ball around Kasper Schmeichel.
Ironically, it was during City's most dominant spell of the game that they found themselves behind, getting caught on the break as Obertan fired into the bottom corner from outside the box.
Nearly 50,000 fans, including the 3,000 travelling City supporters, were left queuing outside the stadium until 3.15pm while workmen fixed part of the big screen inside the stadium that had come loose.
Referee Martin Atkinson, who had taken charge of the abandoned international game between Serbia and Albania, refused to let the game get under way until the problem had been fixed.
City manager Nigel Pearson, meanwhile, made three changes to the side that conceded the 96th-minute equaliser against Burnley two weeks ago.
Esteban Cambiasso, Matty James and Marc Albrighton all started in a 4-1-4-1 formation, while Dean Hammond and Jamie Vardy dropped to the bench. Riyad Mahrez was missing altogether after featuring heavily in two games for Algeria.
Newcastle looked to play on the counter and that almost paid dividends inside 10 minutes as they broke away at speed, before Moussa Sissoko found Coloccini bombing forward but the centre-back could only side-foot it wide.
It was then James's turn to squander City's best chance as, following a neat one-two with Leonardo Ulloa, he fired a weak effort straight at Tim Krul.
Krul, though, then misjudged a high ball from Albrighton that flew over the keeper and rattled the upright.
It was then City's turn to hold their breath as Cisse's shot deflected off Liam Moore and dipped marginally wide of the post. An early second-half effort from Sissoko would do the same.
Everyone in the stadium was left scratching their heads, though, when Cisse intercepted Paul Konchesky's backpass, only to take it round Schmeichel and fire into the side-netting.
Just when City were finding their stride, they got caught on the break. Ritchie De Laet's shot was blocked into the path of Cisse, who found Obertan and the winger cut inside before firing low past Schmeichel.
Pearson's men threw everything they had at Newcastle in search of an equaliser and it so nearly came when Nugent found Vardy at the back post but the striker's attempted scorpian-like backheel failed to come off.
Ulloa, too, could not get the ball under control when it mattered, as he fluffed his first touch through one-on-one with Krul.
Drinkwater had a fierce effort from the edge of the box saved before James's shot was also deflected over. City just could not find a way through.
Teams:
Newcastle: (4-2-3-1) Krul, Janmaat, Taylor, Coloccini, Dummett, Tiote, Colback, Obertan, Sissoko, Gouffran, Cisse
Subs: Anita, Perez, Haidara, Cabella, Elliott, Abeid, Armstrong
City: (4-1-4-1) Schmeichel, De Laet, Morgan, Moore, Konchesky, Cambiasso, Albrighton, James, Drinkwater, Schlupp, Ulloa
Subs:: Hammond, Vardy, King, Hamer, Knockaert, Wasileski, Nugent
Referee: Martin Atkinson
