If Rafael Benitez was probably slightly relieved Messrs Gillett and Hicks were not around to see his side spurn a litany of first-half chances, few would begrudge Glenn Roeder the win after the completion of his first, generally extremely impressive, year in charge on Tyneside.
"I would be the first to admit Liverpool started better than us," Roeder said. "We gifted them an early goal and for 15 minutes or so we survived some hairy moments, but our second-half performance was fantastic."
"Bellers is back in Toon," the front-page headline in Friday's local evening paper had said; the Welshman soon reminded Tyneside of his talents, providing Liverpool with an early lead against his former club on a day so icily wet and wild that several pitch inspections were required before kick-off.
Bellamy's eighth goal of the season came after Steve Harper's weak clearance clear was intercepted by Jermaine Pennant. All that remained was for the right winger to dodge Celestine Babayaro - playing hours after the death of his brother from tuberculosis - before centring for the scorer to shoot low beyond Harper.
Although Bellamy was persistently booed, many Newcastle fans were sad to see him leave in the wake of an acrimonious fall-out with Graeme Souness, the club's former manager.
Sir Bobby Robson, the man who brought the striker to St James', and always maintained he was technically superior to Michael Owen, was here to watch his former protégé - and possibly offer fellow spectator, Steve McClaren, the odd tip on coping with the back-page criticism after international friendly defeats. Meanwhile, alongside them in the posh seats, David Moores, the out-going Liverpool chairman, surely felt a little strange. Moores may have made mind-boggling millions by selling Liverpool to a pair of dollar billionaires, but a big part of him did not really want to relinquish power at Anfield.
Whether Jose Reina retains the goalkeeper's jersey for Benitez's side next season remains a moot point. Reina has not always convinced of late and when the Spaniard dashed out to try to clear the ball, as the speeding Obafemi Martins chased Kieron Dyer's through pass, he merely succeeded in colliding with his own defender, Daniel Agger.
Seizing on the loose ball, Newcastle's Nigerian international was left to stroke his 12th goal of the campaign into an empty net.
By then, though, Liverpool could conceivably have been home and dry. When Bolo Zenden intercepted Steven Taylor's alarming attempt at a back-pass, he was denied what should have been a certain goal by a piece of stellar goalkeeping by Harper.
Deputising for the injured Shay Given, Harper later did brilliantly to divert a Bellamy shot onto the bar after the striker had been put through by a pass from Momo Sissoko, who, alongside Steven Gerrard, was embroiled in an intriguing, increasingly evenly balanced, central midfield struggle with Nicky Butt and Scott Parker.
Early in the second period Dirk Kuyt spurned yet another chance after being cleverly found by Zenden's ball. Having shrugged off Nicky Butt and with Harper off his line and in quite a tangle with Oguchi Onyewu, Newcastle's new American centre-half, the Dutch striker could not quite steer his shot on target.
Yet by now Newcastle, and the ever more aerially assertive Onyewu, in particular, were generally defending well and retaining possession intelligently. With an element of frustration - typified by a needless kick at Harper - creeping into Bellamy's game, Liverpool suddenly found themselves on the back-foot when the often surprisingly lenient Mark Halsey awarded a penalty for John Arne Riise's trip on Taylor.
Nolberto Solano stepped forward to take the kick, his low, right-footed, strike sending Reina the wrong way.
"We conceded a stupid goal and a stupid penalty," Benitez lamented.
He now takes his players to a training camp in Portugal ahead of their Champions League date with Barcelona. "We had three or four chances to finish Newcastle off,but we just couldn't take them."
