SWANS LOOK DOOMED ... BUT WILL TOON FOLLOW?

NEWCASTLE can only hope they find three worse teams in the coming months. Swansea are surely one of them. But if you cannot beat the bottom club at home, you risk surrendering your destiny to others. And that is the way it will be for Rafa Benitez and his side between now and May, for when fans leaving St James’ Park are celebrating news of a Watford equaliser against Southampton, you know faith in their own men has evaporated. Supporters are behind Benitez, but this is a Championship side fighting for top-flight status. That much was evident from Saturday’s team-sheet, consisting entirely of last season’s players. ‘Carlos Carvalhal told me that before the game…’ said Benitez, pointedly. So did the Spaniard expect to arrive in January with the same XI who won promotion? ‘No,’

he added bluntly. ‘It tells everybody where we are.’ To be three points clear of the bottom three, then, is perhaps an overachievement and due to good recent away form, but this draw made it seven matches without a home win, a sequence which last occurred in 2009 and ended in relegation. ‘We have a lot of players giving everything but still, sometimes it is not enough,’ said Benitez after a second-half equaliser from Joselu (right) cancelled out Jordan Ayew’s opener. ‘Do we need help?’ Benitez added. ‘The answer is yes.’ It is looking increasingly unlikely, however, that help will arrive in the form of a cash injection from owner Mike Ashley. To that end, they will be left to rely on others’ failings. Swansea are six points behind Newcastle, and they need help too, if they are to survive. Newcastle must hope it does not arrive, for they are banking on Saturday’s opponents being one of those three teams who finish beneath them.