Fear's turning into a reality

Big Sam's Blackburn Rovers duly dismantled Newcastle 3-0, with a furious Toon Army abandoning their verbal attack on Allardyce to demand that owner Mike Ashley heads for the exit.

A disastrous second 45 minutes saw Nicky Butt sent off, Joey Barton mark his comeback with a stupid booking, United concede their ninth Premier League penalty of the season, which is more than any other team, and the fans turn once again upon their silent and inactive owner.

What a sad, sorry state of affairs.

Having been held 2-2 at home by West Ham, who at the time were in the same mire, and well beaten by Blackburn, the Magpies now have a short rest, courtesy of FA Cup humiliation.

Then it's Manchester City away - with, perhaps, Kaka, Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips - a demolition derby against Sunderland at St James's Park, and finally a visit to revitalised West Brom.

Bad is turning to worse. Grey to pitch black. Fear to reality.

How Newcastle need fresh blood from the January transfer window.

Be it through under-siege Ashley loosening the purse strings, Dennis Wise successfully negotiating, or Joe Kinnear kissing the Blarney Stone, the supporters no longer care. As long as it happens in numbers - and quickly.

Kinnear has stretched his run without a solitary victory to six games and has mustered only four wins from 18 attempts, but he tells us he's been offered "a very lucrative long-term" contract by an owner the fans cannot abide.

It's all such a mess, and with Man City, West Brom and, of course, Blackburn all picking up the maximum return, Newcastle are perilously perched only two points above the relegation cellar.

Similar defeats for Sunderland and Middlesbrough made it a gloomy North East, but at least kept another couple of clubs beneath the black-and-whites.

United are blowing matches where they had a golden opportunity to put distance between themselves and their opponents, and that sets alarm bells ringing loudly.

No way can the Mags afford to be relegated into the Championship to host the likes of Blackpool, Swansea, Plymouth Argyle, Bristol City and Barnsley next season.

However, they had better wake up to the fact that it is possible and do something about it, not tamely surrender once a goal has been conceded as at Ewood Park.

Oh, I know that on top of his booking Pal Joey marked his return by publicly slagging
Jose Enrique after Blackburn's third goal.

But fans so desperately need to find a crumb of comfort that, as blows were not exchanged a la Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, the inclination is to dismiss the episode as someone at least caring amid meek acceptance.

Having done well first-half, after an unlucky penalty was scored heads drooped, indiscipline took over, and defeat became inevitable.

Three goals were leaked by the end and the bottom line is that no Premier League side has conceded more than Newcastle's 37 from 22 outings.

Running up a white flag has never been acceptable to fiercely proud Geordies and that will be the abiding memory of a black day.

That and Big Sam's smug face.