The Long Road To The End

Usually at this time in a Premier League season, fans are excitedly posturing over possibilities for how the end of the campaign might pan out.

Newcastle United supporters, on the other hand, are just wishing the end of the season was now. So far, 2014 has been a pitiful time to support the club, with Sunderland, Spurs, Everton and Manchester United having all scored more goals at St. James' Park than the Toon Army have done themselves.

The miserable streak continued at Stoke City, with a flukey goal from one time transfer target Erik Pieters - his first goal since 2008 - continue a miserable recent run. An aggregate 12-0 defeat in the last four outings has reduced fans faith in the team significantly, with belief seemingly hurtling towards its lowest since promotion in 2010, and caps off the miserable streak since the previous fixture against the Potters.

Back on Boxing Day 2013, Newcastle racked up the biggest win of the campaign with a 5-1 win over Stoke at St. James' Park. Sure, Stoke had two players sent off, but you have to take advantage of that, and a good display in victory got Newcastle up to 6th in the table. Even better than that, the team was only 3 points from 4th placed Liverpool, and dreaming of an unlikely Champions League challenge like in 2011/12.

Since then, the wheels, doors, mirrors, panels and even the bloody roof have fallen off. Newcastle have only won 4 games since, and each is retrospectively tainted.

A 3-1 win at West Ham in mid-January included the performance that convinced PSG to sign Yohan Cabaye, a 1-0 win over Aston Villa should've been more but for poor Cisse and Remy finishing, and a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace was fairly undeserved.

This leaves out the 4-1 win over Hull City at the start of March - arguably Newcastle's best performance since that reverse game against the Potters. But that game is not remembered for some superb Tim Krul stops, a marvellous strike from Moussa Sissoko and a first Premier League strike from Vurnon Anita.

Instead, the main memory of that game is Pardew's moment of idiocy when he nudged his head at Hull midfielder David Meyler. Hull's Meyler may have escaped censure for pushing the manager and starting the fiasco in the first place, but Pardew was an idiot for stooping to his level.

Since that, things have collapsed at a fast rate. A poor performance in defeat at a Fulham side who hadn't won in 2 1/2 months beforehand was bad enough, but humiliating performances at home to Everton and a Manchester United team saving players for Bayern Munich were worse.

The true nadir had been the performance at Southampton, where it took 72 minutes and 3 Southampton goals for home keeper Artur Boruc to even have to make a save. This was a tragic performance where the team not so much didn't show up as abandoned all pretence of interest in playing the sport. If anything, 4-0 flattered the Toon Army defenders, and had Rob Elliott not made 3 superb stops to deny Jay Rodriguez, a once-in-a-generation humiliation could've occurred.

But somehow, despite not conceding three less than at St. Mary's, the game at Stoke was worse. A team with something to play for or even pretending to have something to play for may have caused trouble, but home keeper Asmir Begovic only had one save to make in the whole game.

While Newcastle may have had a penalty for a foul on Papiss Cisse by Geoff Cameron, and while Anita, Ameobi and Gosling all missed sitters, the performance was by and large dreadful. A puzzling 3-5-2 formation didn't seem to have any logic or comprehension to it, which was made even more bewildering by some confusing substitutions and position places.

Anita's right wing-back position was particularly confusing, and the confusion was not helped by the bizarre shoehorning of youngster Adam Armstrong into this position later in the game.

By the end, the players showed no hint of a fight back, with a Mike Williamson blocked shot and a wayward drive from Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa the nearest to an equaliser.

This was the moment Newcastle fans finally decided Pardew was a useless incompetent, with chants supporting his dismissal ringing out of the away end and the players were booed off. For most of this sullen year, the fans have largely stayed with the team, but this felt like a moment when the trust had been eroded.

Nevertheless, Pardew continued his usual attempts to evade criticism. This week's blame game saw the wind, the referee, the fans and the local media all blamed, rather than his failure to motivate a flagging squad from caring about proceedings.

Pardew's attempts to blame the local media for creating fan discontent was a bizarre move, albeit one fitting the club's preferred narrative after they banned the local media from the club earlier in the campaign. It duly led to the media embracing the ultimate in snarky behaviour, with a hilarious and some may argue fitting back page where the Sunday Sun apologised for the multitude of sins Pardew has managed in 2014.

Fan approval is also certainly low, with Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere full of negative comments and calling for Pardew's time to be up.

Under a more committed chairman, Pardew might be fretting for his job. Supposing Stoke and West Ham catch the freefalling Toon and take away what would only be a second top 10 finish since 2006, and Pardew may see his position under threat.

It goes without saying, however, that it would take a lot for Mike Ashley to throw millions at Pardew for him to leave. Relegation last season would certainly have seen him dismissed but aside from that, who knows.

The players certainly don't seem to have faith, with the multimillionaire team drifting without interest through matches.

Also not helpful was the arrival of new Managing Director Lee Charnley, who was appointed last week and announced the club would not engage in heavy spending. One or two new players in the summer, maybe, was in his words.

This is faintly predictable - after all, this year saw all of 2 players arrive, both on loan. But much more is required. A replacement for Yohan Cabaye, one (maybe two) new centre backs, a right back for the inevitable departure of Debuchy, two new wingers, two new strikers (four if Remy and Cisse leave) - in fact, something everywhere except in goal, and even then a departure of Tim Krul would change that.

The club as a whole appears to be like West Bromwich Albion last season. Last season, the Baggies raced out of the traps and sat 4th in November with a team built around a loan striker (Romelu Lukaku), before crawling to the end. They did just enough to retain a top 8 finish, but delivered an awful points return in the second half of the 2012/13 season that left Baggies fans uneasy.

They were right to feel that unease. This season, West Bromwich Albion have been in a relegation battle as well as having 3 managers. Barring a surprise win at Old Trafford in September, they've never got going and throwing away leads in the 94th minute in consecutive home games against Cardiff and Spurs has left them in a heap of trouble. In fact, Newcastle were the last team WBA beat at home - another unwanted skidmark against this train wreck of a year.

A failure for Newcastle's hierarchy to wake up and not arrest this slide will mean 2014/15 will be a desperate campaign. But at the moment, the club appears hell-bent on sleepwalking towards the end and possibly dark times ahead.