THRIFTY ASHLEY MUST SPEND BIG

MIKE ASHLEY can now see for himself the harvest of his thrift in black and white.

If the buttock-clenching tedium at Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace star Wilf Zaha, below) did not ring any alarm bells with Newcastle’s owner, on his first excursion to watch them play for 16 months, there is nobody at home in the belfry.

Let’s spell it out for Big Mike, in case the evidence before his eyes didn’t register.

Toon are in a relegation fight. Without meaningful investment in January – especially up front, where they are toothless – they could go down. For the third time on his watch.

Lose at home to Leicester on Saturday, and Newcastle will go into the next international break with two points from seven games.

The fork with which Ashley harpoons his dinner every night has have scored fewer goals than Newcastle over the first six games.

When Aleksandar Mitrovic has banged in more for Fulham than Toon have managed between them, it makes his £20m sale in the summer even more baffling.

Newcastle do not lack tenacity, and skipper Jamaal Lascelles, keeper Martin Dubravka and new signing Federico Fernandez provide an axis of stability at the back.

But Lascelles admitted: “We set out our stall to win at Palace – it didn’t happen, but we take the positives, of which there were a lot, and we go for the three points next weekend because that first win needs to happen soon. “Defensively, I’m very pleased with how we’re going. It’s about keeping the same intensity and team spirit, because we’re at our very best when we play like that.” Apart from Ayoze Perez’s tame finish and a wayward Lascelles header, Newcastle never looked like scoring and were lucky to abscond with a point after Mamadou Sakho’s dreadful late miss.

Manager Rafa Benitez said: “If you analyse all the games, we have played against four top sides and we were close.

“I’m not saying we deserved anything, but we were close and we could have got more. We did all we could do in terms of effort, and we have to improve on the ball.

“If the team work as hard as they did here, and we score first against teams who are not in the top six, then it can change everything. We have to believe we can do it.”