The 26-year-old scored a superb individual goal to put the leaders 4-0 up against 10-man Barnsley, and for the first time in England, produced his Spiderman mask in celebration.

His manager, however, was simply delighted with his contribution as the Magpies moved eight points clear at the top of the table with their biggest league win in eight years.

Hughton said: "I don't know if it was worth the wait, but it was a wonderful goal.

"For us, the most important thing is his overall contribution and we can't fault that.

"He was excellent today, a player playing with real confidence.

"As a player, can he add more goals to his game? Yes, I think he can, but the most important thing is if he keeps giving us contributions like that, we will certainly be happy with that."

There was little to choose between the sides in a lukewarm first-half until Barnsley keeper Luke Steele was sent off for tripping Peter Lovenkrands as he rounded him with 42 minutes gone.

Tykes boss Mark Robins later insisted there had been no contact, although referee Grant Hegley was convinced.

Robins said: "The disappointment was the sending-off, because that was the pivotal moment in the game.

"It's dubious whether there was any contact made, but I am told by the referee now that the rule is that it's a trip or an attempt to trip in the penalty area, so I don't know.

"The goalkeeper tells me he didn't make any contact and Peter Lovenkrands confirmed that after the game. He never touched him, but he had to go down."

With substitute keeper David Preece standing between him and his 11th goal of the season, Lovenkrands calmly converted the penalty, and then made it 2-0 with a deft header three minutes after the restart.

Midfielder Danny Guthrie added a third with a deflected long-range effort after 50 minutes and then claimed his second 19 minutes later with a free-kick which eluded Preece as he anticipated Andy Carroll - who tried to claim it anyway - getting a touch in front of him.

But in the meantime, Gutierrez had blasted home off the underside of the crossbar, and Kevin Nolan made it 6-0 with 19 minutes remaining.

Substitute Daniel Bogdanovic pulled one back seven minutes from time, but in truth the Magpies might have won even more handsomely.

They are now eight points better off that second-placed Nottingham Forest, who beat Swansea at the death, and nine ahead of West Brom following their defeat at QPR.

However, Hughton will take nothing for granted.

He said: "I don't think you can. As good as we were today, we have some very tough games coming up and we are also aware that a couple of poor results, a couple of defeats, others getting wins, life becomes harder and the gap becomes tighter, so I don't think you can afford to."