Magpies in a flap after costly collapse

THE end of the season merely heralds the start of the questions for Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew and much-maligned owner Mike Ashley.

Pardew has long since sounded his intention to reinvest the bulk of the £35million garnered from the controversial sale of Andy Carroll, the England striker who joined Liverpool in January.

At St James’ Park, however, there is a propaganda-filled chasm which separates intention and eventuality, evidenced by Pardew’s weary insistence that Carroll would not be leaving the club in the New Year.

If Ashley needs a reminder as to the need for reinforcement then it came in a catastrophic final 28 minutes of the campaign.

Leading by three and cruising toward a lucrative top-10 finish, a shambolic capitulation, in which Cameroon international Somen Tchoyi stole the most unlikely of hat-tricks, laid brutally bare the soft centre which Pardew will no doubt use as leverage in loosening the black-and-white purse strings.

“This game reflected this season for us,” said the Magpies boss. “Brilliant at times and then rubbish at the end. We need to eradicate that inconsistency and only quality players will do that.

United have lost £2.5m as a result of slipping from ninth to 12th following Tchoyi’s equaliser, a fact not lost on the man in charge.

“Of course that (prize money lost) is a blow and it’s frustrating,” he added.

“We should have seen the game out and won. We were 3-0 up following a couple of big errors from them and were seeing the game out no problem.

“Four or five of our players started to struggle with the amount of time they’ve been out.

“But that’s a reflection of where we are in the squad at the moment and although I’m disappointed I’m trying to keep myself in the zone of saying it’s been a great effort this year.

“We lost Hatem Ben Arfa (to injury) and Andy Carroll, so in terms of finishing where we are, 12th, is about fair — we need to build on that next year.”

There was consolation for Pardew in the performance of teenage winger Shane Ferguson, who is certain to be part of his plans and is being pursued by both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for international duty.

The opening goal, on 16 minutes, followed their failure to clear from a corner and defender Steven Taylor swivelled to smash home his third from as many matches.

Six minutes before the break and goalkeeper Scott Carson, having saved Peter Lovenkrands’ initial lob, laboured in his recovery towards the goal-line and the ball dropped the wrong side of the paint.

And The Baggies were again the architects of their own downfall just 90 seconds after the restart for the second period, Jonas Olsson turning Jose Enrique’s harmless hoist into his own net.

And Hodgson said: “I thought we did our best to lose it. We gave ourselves an uphill task with the three goals we conceded.

“But we did not give up hope and took the game to Newcastle. And I thought we were worthy of three good goals.”

Tchoyi’s first was against the run of play just after the hour mark, a hopeful downfield punt somehow unlocking the home backline, allowing the forward to dash clear and finish low beyond Tim Krul.

Ten minutes later and United’s inability to deal with a routine delivery presented Tchoyi with the chance to step inside Fabricio Coloccini and smash into the roof of the net.

But it wasn’t until the final minute that the comeback was complete, the 28-year-old, unforgivably unchaperoned just six yards from goal, stooping to plant a header into the bottom corner from Olsson’s centre.