Newcastle plumb new depths

HAS it really come to this?

Has the brave new Sam Allardyce era reached the point where a two-goal defeat at a mid-table Premier League club is greeted with a standing ovation from supporters and lauded as a moral victory by manager and players?

Apparently so.

A week after the embarrassment of a 3-0 home defeat by Liverpool, one which saw those same fans demand Allardyce’s removal, this was, without doubt, a vast improvement.

Perhaps, a muted version of the response and praise 6,000 traveling Geordies heaped upon their heroes would have been appropriate, given the undoubted spirit and physical effort they had shown over the preceding 90 minutes.

Yet the fact remains that Newcastle, a goal to the good early in the second half, collapsed thereafter and continued a run that has brought them just one point from the last five games.

Yes, they have injuries and yes, the return to fitness of key players, particularly at the back, will prove that they are far better than one point from the last available 15 suggests.

Whether those factors justified a near hysterical response from Allardyce and forward Alan Smith is less certain. To hear the pair talk, you would have imagined that Newcastle had just won the game, not lost yet again in fairly desultory circumstances.

“Everyone saw today the improvement,” crowed Smith. “Not just in the performance but also in the manner of the performance and that was a big thing from our point of view.

“We wanted to get out there today and make sure we played with pride, with passion and I think you saw from they reaction of the fans at the end you saw that today. It was a different Newcastle United from the one you saw last Saturday. That's the one we want to see for the rest of the season. There's no way we deserved to lose this game.”

That claim is tenuous, at best. After Martins’ superb set-piece header early in the second half edged Newcastle ahead in a closely-fought game, the Geordies folded, pure and simple.

Charles N’Zogbia’s foul allowed David Bentley to score a brilliant free-kick, Stephen Carr’s mistake opened the way for the same player to bury another brilliant long-range shot and, while Allardyce rightly claimed his side might have scored more than their solitary goal, so might Blackburn. Eventually, they did, as Tugay’s 15-yard shot followed a break by Jason Roberts deep in injury-time.

To add to the disaster — not that anyone connected with Newcastle could see it as such — defenders Abdoulaye Faye and Stephen Carr aggravated injuries which should keep them out of Newcastle’s next game, the small matter of the visit of leaders Arsenal on Wednesday.

“Football fans know when a team's given 100 per cent, they know when fans deserve clapping off and they know when they deserve a bollocking,” continued Smith. “We gave everything we had and I hope they get behind us again on Wednesday.”

To give Newcastle’s defeat further context, of course, it should be pointed out that Blackburn themselves were recovering from a poor display on their previous outing, in their case a 4-0 home defeat by Aston Villa three days earlier.

As Bentley proved, in action and in words, this was how to bounce back from disappointment. Add the frustrations left over from his involvement with the recent England debacle, and the winger had special reason to celebrate.

“To get beaten 4-0 is embarrassing and humiliating,” Bentley said. “With England as well, I've had the worst couple of weeks of my life, it seems like everything has gone wrong. So it was emotional for me to get a couple of goals.”

BLACKBURN (4-4-2) Friedel 7, Emerton 5, Samba 5, Ooijer 6, Warnock 7, Bentley 9, Mokoena 5 (Reid 65, 5), Tugay 8, Dunn 6 (Pedersen 58, 6), McCarthy 5 (Roberts 61, 7), Santa Cruz 7. Subs Not Used: Brown, Savage.

NEWCASTLE (4-1-3-2) Given 7, Beye 6, Faye 6 (Carr 23, 4, Viduka 73, 5)), Rozenhal 5, N’Zogbia 5, Butt 8, Geremi 6, Barton 7, Milner 5, Martins 7, Smith 7.

Subs Not Used: Harper, Enrique, Emre.

REFEREE: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire) 8: The early caution of Nicky Butt took the sting out of a potentially fiery encounter and he handled the game with a sure touch.

MATCH RATING: *** A turgid first half gave way to a thoroughly absorbing second once Newcastle scored and both sides realised the game was there to win.