Quite simply a night when nothing went right for Newcastle and a record Kingston Park crowd for the reserves saw nothing of the form that has seen Tommy Craig's men win eight out of ten league matches this season.

How much of our awful performance could be attributed to the playing surface is a matter for debate, but the visitors seemed to take the undulating coarsely-cut surface in their stride.

Newcastle started poorly in a frenetic opening and Darren Ambrose was left lying prone on the turf after being kicked from behind - one of a number of incidents referee Haywood chose to ignore. The former Ipswich youngster resumed in left midfield after some moments of treatment from physio Kev Bell, but didn't reappear after the break.

Neither 'keeper had been seriously tested, but it was Tony Caig who picked the ball out of his own net on 14 minutes after his defence parted to let the red tide through.

Williams found time and space to centre from the right side of our box and striker Cooper forced the ball home from close range with Dabizas and Taylor left looking at each other.

There was almost an instant response from Newcastle as McClen broke into the left side of the visitor's box but his final ball was too wayward for Cort to get anything on.

Cooper again came close to extending the Red Devil's lead just past the half hour mark as he met a centre from the left with a first time shot, only for Caig to come out and block it with his legs.

The home side belatedly sprang into life on 38 minutes when a combination of passes between Ambrose and Brittain set up Chopra to shoot but see a defender deflect his effort for a corner - a rare flowing move out of defence.

From the resultant corner the ball broke to Ferrell, who just failed to keep his rising shot under the bar.

Two minutes before the scheduled end of the half Ferrell was involved again, escaping the unwanted attentions of Byrne down by the far corner flag with what the visiting player claimed was a hand in the face. The game went on and within seconds Chopra appeared to have become entangled with defender Tierney, who looked to be moaning about being trampled.

With the half almost at a close, Newcastle kept up this pressure but could only create two corners, one of which led to an Ambrose shot being blocked.

At the interval Sir Bobby walked to both ends of the field inspecting the surface, clearly concerned about the state of the surface.

Newcastle reverted to three central defenders after the break when Carr came on for Ambrose.

His first touch seconds later was a deep cross from the left flank met by Cort's firm header, parried by a diving 'keeper Williams.

However while that was encouraging, within four minutes of the restart hopes of salvaging something from this game quite literally took a nose dive.

A Manchester corner played to our near post was directed on the angle of post and bar by the head of Cooper. The ball dropped but wasn't cleared and Cooper got his second of the evening with a close range shot that hit the post and then deflected off the face of the diving Caig before creeping in. Cruel luck.

Newcastle did attempt to claw something back and forced a corner on 59 mins the Brittain played in for Dabizas to force a decent stop from the 'keeper with a header.

An away victory was ensured a minute later though, when a dipping long-range effort from a central position by Wood flew past Caig.

With the rain getting heavier, this. was the signal for many spectators to start making for the exits, apart from those who spent the night queuing for the chip van that is....

Newcastle fashioned one more scoring chance when Cort and Ferrell combined to release sub Lewis Guy, who scampered beyond the final defender only to send his angled shot harmlessly over the crossbar.

A similar effort from Williams at the other end that shaved Caig's crossbar on 85 minutes and a good Caig block a minute later from Picken appeared to be the final goalmouth action of the game.

Unfortunately our third-choice custodian was to concede a fourth goal in added time, after some frankly Hooperesque antics.

There seemed no danger as Ebanks-Blake found himself on the dead ball line with Caig diving at his feet to smother ball. However the young Manchester striker had evaded the 'keeper and jinked along the line before slipping the ball into the empty goal, despite the attentions of Steven Taylor, who had made it back to cover but collided with the post and required treatment in the goal.

That goal set the seal on a wholly unsatisfactory night for a big crowd - bit like the previous evening's fare in the Carling Cup really. It was hard to find anyone who enhanced their reputation in a black and white shirt and it's depressing to report that nobody is handing Sir Bobby any difficult decisions about being picked in first team squads.

Cort at least manage ninety minutes and had the odd neat touch in the midfield role he ended up occupying after the break. However it's difficult to see him ever being handed a first team recall - sad but true. As for Chopra, he looked unhappy at having not been involved the previous evening for the first team, but rather than serve up a performance to have Sir Bobby pondering, he elected instead to sulk his way round the pitch looking for confrontations with opponents.