Owen said: “It’s always pleasing to play 90 minutes and score a goal to win the game. That’s what you play football for.

“We kept going to the end and I managed to nick in front of the defender - that’s what I work on in training all week, trying to time my runs, and thankfully I did that to perfection at the end.”

Manager Sam Allardyce was delighted with Owen’s contribution, a sentiment which will also extend to McClaren.

Allardyce said: “Steve was here today and was here last Wednesday and I think he will be feeling quietly confident now that Michael’s match-fitness has improved immensely over the last two or three weeks with all the games he has now played in.

“We just both hope he stays clear from injury, and we have seen his finishing qualities.

“He got us off the mark against Barnsley and he got us the win today – and it appears Michael Owen’s goals are always important goals as well, that’s the most important thing.

“He’s not scoring the fourth when we are 3-0 up, he scoring the goal that wins us the game or scoring the goal that draws us a match.

“Steve could look forward to him playing for England and hopefully they do very well and he gets a couple of goals in the qualifiers.

“He is certainly looking good enough now for that, and I hope he does it.”

Owen’s strike ended a 647-minute wait for a league goal at St James’ and fired his side into fifth place in the table after an unbeaten start to the season.

It came after the Magpies had made more than enough chances to win the game, but were unable to take any of them to keep a crowd of 50,461 on the edges of their seats.

Allardyce, who lost Mark Viduka to a hamstring problem at half-time, said: “It was a great goal and overall, a very, very comfortable, good performance.

“We should have had the game all buried with their 11 men in the first half, never mind the 10 men in the second.

“We completely dominated the game, but found a little bit of hard luck. A couple of good saves from the keeper and some poor finishing meant we were frustrated at half-time that we were not one or two goals up.”

Wigan boss Chris Hutchings blamed referee Steve Bennett’s decision to dismiss Kevin Kilbane just 30 seconds after the break for his side’s late capitulation after staging a brave rearguard action.

He said: “The sending-off within 30 seconds of the second half made a major impact on the game and what we had to do.

“The referee said he led with the arm, but it was right in front of the dug-out and to me, it was a clash of heads.

“It would be interesting if the referee would come and have a look at it and have his say.

“You come to places like this and you are always going to be under pressure. You have got to ride the storm, and we did that until half-time.

“Obviously, it was a major setback having Kevin sent off.”

There was an inevitability about Owen’s late strike, and Hutchings was left to take the positives out of a committed display.

He said: “He always gets a chance, Michael, and he took it today, all credit to him.

“But we have got to take the positives out of it. If they had gone down to 10 men, I would have expected us to come away with the points.”