With two games to go, Newcastle sit in a hugely uncomfortable position.
A few weeks ago, some people were touting the current haul of 38 points being potentially enough but that situation has unravelled following a victory for Wigan at West Bromwich Albion. With another limp over the line seeing Newcastle draw at West Ham, it ramps up the uncomfortable situation.
Sunderland and Wigan still have games in hand and can send the Toon Army into the bottom three by the time Sunday's clash at QPR kicks off.
It wasn't meant to be like this. On paper, the starting 11 fizzes and sparkles with electricity and talented players, and is largely still made up of the players who led the club to a hugely impressive 5th place finish in 2011-12.
Even allowing for the pile-up of reaching a Europa League Quarter Final, this team should have more than enough to keep in the top half. But something extraordinarily inept has taken control at St. James' Park, with the team resembling something closer to the shambles that dropped out of the league in 2009.
Things have been wrong all season, and fans will have been ruminating all season long as to what the problem is. Among the theories touted include failing to invest in the summer, managerial ineptitude in both tactics and motivation, players going backwards, awful luck, a preposterous injury list and reliance on 'cheese eating surrender monkies' as the press has been happy to paint this week.
Nevertheless, the momentum is not in our favour. As if the humilating derby mauling at home to Sunderland wasn't bad enough, the worst home defeat since 1925 came in the following home game when a Liverpool team missing Luis Suarez put six in the back of our net.
That game felt painful to watch - nevermind actually attend. A gutless team surrendered in the most appalling display imaginable. This led to a long and farcical week that involved the club banning one newspaper and looking into sueing another as the team were said to be falling apart.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Aston Villa - a team that have been apocalyptically bad for the bulk of the season - are now crossing the line ahead of us and yet another Wigan great escape is gathering momentum.
With just one win in seven league outings - and only three goals in that time - it is easy to get paranoid.
There is substaintially good reason for this. As well as the fact the club has continually show a lack of attacking imagination or creativity, they play in the same teamof the league's most porous defences. With us appearing to sink, it seems we need teams to cushion our fall.
This is a dangerous policy and one that is asking for trouble. A team may well cushion our fall but we cannot rely on it. The only way the Premier League status can be preserved is winning one or both of our final two games.
The fine lines in football are ridiculous. A goalline technology decision at Upton Park went against us, robbing us of 2 points that would have all-but seen us cross the finishing line. To give another bone for conspiracy theorists to chew over, assistant linesman Matthew Wilkes was the same one who ignored the assault masquerading as a tackle and a blatant handball goal in the Wigan defeat that has arguably kept them alive.
But we cannot reflect on this. We appear to be playing a game of chicken, as we stare relegation in the face. The threat is growing larger and all we seem to do is hoping we can evade it in the time.
Aside from being a dangerous game, it also points to tactical malpractice. Had we been a bit more gung-ho, we could well have secured vital points to keep us away from the dropzone. We certainly could have at least rectified our awful corner taking, with no corners producing goals directly since October 2011.
QPR promises to be a tense afternoon. A failure to win over the already relegated Hoops and we will almost certainly follow them out of the division. But it remains to be seen where goals are coming from, with Cisse seeming to only score one in five chances, while our substitutions seem to reduce our attacking threat to the point of irrelevance.
An uncomfortable and unhappy season could yet end in the worst way possible, and everything's needed to avoid another traumatic drop out of this league - one we almost certainly won't bounce back from at the first time of asking.
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