JOHNGIBSON Future is there...who will grab it?
HARD WORK OF SEASON PUT AT RISK
NOW we are going to find out if these players have the bottle to finish the job and not rely on the failings of others.
One point out of the last nine and only two victories in the last eight matches has put a season’s work at risk.
United have blown the championship of the Championship and have put automatic promotion from second place under threat.
Only the points dropped recently by Huddersfield Town have eased the pain.
Sacrificing a 1-0 lead held for a long time at Derby straight after Newcastle’s insipid surrender at Ipswich was an unexpected reprieve.
It resulted in Reading leapfrogging Huddersfield into third place, though the Terriers still have a game in hand over all.
Let me say straight away I am still convinced United will go up without troubling the play-offs.
Luckily games are running out at a rapid rate, they have a six-point advantage over Reading with nine points left to play for and a sevenpoint lead over Huddersfield who have 12 on offer.
However, the way United are finishing makes us mightily relieved the others have probably left it a little too late to mount a meaningful challenge.
Yet achieving their goal amid of welter of embarrassing shows is not the way for a big club like Newcastle to return to the top table.
Through the back door, bruised and dishevelled, rather than with a front door swagger.
For the first time since Rafa Benitez turned up at the cathedral on the hill and a love-in began which has run unabated people are now looking towards the club’s muchdecorated manager to show his much-vaunted mettle and somehow drag his players over the line.
What is plainly worrying to every Geordie is the fact the Mags have imploded.
Having not played well for a long time – the Leeds home match apart – they have stopped manufacturing victories out of average performances.
Former Mag Steven Taylor, now at Ipswich, revealed before the 3-1 Portman Road defeat speaking to a couple of his old team-mates he sensed nervousness following their recent run of results. That is what makes you worry about the team having collective bottle.
Some individuals may well possess steel but do enough to make a difference?
The bottom line is United’s record after their second relegation under Mike Ashley’s ownership is nowhere near as good as that Chris Hughton and his players manufactured in 2009-10.
Then United went up as champions, unbeaten at home and with only four defeats away all season.
One hundred and two points harvested, a whopping 11 points more than second-placed West Bromwich.
Right now these Mags have lost five at home and five away accumulating 85 points with only three matches to go. So all Hughton’s records are unreachable.
The form of a shed load of players has collapsed during the recent dismal run... skipper Jamaal Lascelles has looked distinctly vulnerable, Yoan Gouffran has lost his early verve, Chancel Mbemba has been unable to take advantage of his reprieve.
Mo Diame and Ayoze Perez fall short of their potential, and even the superb Matt Ritchie caught the mistake-ridden bug at Ipswich.
The thought of risking a secondplace finish and having to go through the lottery of the play-offs with a Wembley victory a must is enough to make any self-respecting Geordie break out in a cold sweat.
If bottle did not hold for automatic promotion what would a death-or-glory finale at the national stadium bring?
No, we don’t want to even contemplate that.
So let Newcastle defeat Preston at SJP on Monday night, Cardiff away, and Barnsley at home – all infinitely winnable – to sweep away the need for a crutch from others and restore some sense of achievement.