It wasn't just a nasty eye infection that had me leaving St. James' Park feeling like I'd just gone several rounds with a hard-hitting heavyweight.

There's only so much punishment you can take and once again our emotions had taken another pummeling; in the build-up and during this encounter.

The announcement of Joe Kinnear's arrival as "Interim Manager" meant that we were once more the butt of jokes up and down the land. Our reaction was simply JFK - Joe F***ing Kinnear.

But for once that wasn't meant to be a personal slur on Kinnear (as it would have been for O'Leary) - we have no strong feelings about the bloke either way - it was just us getting ready for more unwelcome media attention and national derision.

The arrival of Kinnear said more about the influence that Dennis Wise still has over this club - who else could have pulled Joe's name out of the hat? But to be honest, it could have been anyone.

The list of names we were suggesting hours before the announcement was only semi-serious but Heather Mills was probably only a couple of points behind Kinnear in the betting.

Kinnear is simply a cheap option to save Ashley a few more quid while he flogs his sinking ship but who in their right mind would make a bid now? Any consortium worth their salt will be sitting on their hands waiting for Spurs to find form and for us to sit adrift at the foot of the table.

Each NUFC defeat knocks £20m off the asking price and there's nothing more that little boys with lots of cash love more than a bit of brinksmanship. It's the only sort of thing that floats the boat of billionaire businessman who have already made their money. And don't we know it.

Once more we look set to suffer because of the ego trips of a handful of money men who don't really have that much to lose should NUFC go down the pan. Ashley reportedly lost much more on his HBOS shares than any hit he might take on his NUFC purchase. Will the next lot be any different?

On to the action then and if we were already on the ropes, then this latest bout left us reeling and heading for the canvas for a fifth consecutive time.

We never recovered from two head shots in the first half and although some retaliation came via a low blow from Michael Owen, a split points decision was never likely.

A first half display that almost defied description was a continuation of the midweek Carling Cup shambles, with the same problems eg: full backs allowing crosses to come in, defenders failing to challenge for those crosses and a breakdown of basic skills - passing, running etc.

The knee injury reported by Martins saw him drop out to be replaced by Xisco. Cacapa meanwhile partnered Collocini in central defence and Taylor went to right back.

Carbon copy headers from Samba and Roque Santa Cruz looked to have secured the win for Rovers - with TV replays of the first suggesting an offside that the bumbling amateurish match officials would never have spotted.

However, a penalty five minutes after the break looked to give Newcastle a fighting chance of a comeback and saw the SJP crowd rediscover their collective voice.

Owen crashed in his third goal in a week to reduce the arrears (also for the third time in a week), but that was as good as it was to get for the black and whites.

One gilt-edged opportunity for Geremi aside, huff and puff from the home side created few openings and eventually the referee ended the contest, by which time we looked to have well and truly thrown in the towel.

Rovers had an unproven 'keeper between the posts making his first-ever top-flight start, but Newcastle singularly failed to test Jason Brown with either shots on target or crosses worthy of the name.

With Gonzalez nowhere to be seen, fellow transfer day signing Xisco was anonymous and his major contribution was to get away with a handball in his own area.

Shola Ameobi meanwhile appeared off the bench in place of Geremi (as knackered as Butt after playing three games in eight days), with the striker notching up a 24th club game since his last goal, a penalty just under two years ago....

Unfortunately, this run of beatings seem unlikely to stop with a new opponent already lined up in the blue corner, live on Sky box-office next Sunday.

That promises to be bloody and not for the faint-hearted and things could get very nasty, as we look to avoid our fifth successive KO at that venue.

Believe me when I say that this current chapter in our farcical recent history is not a sight for sore eyes.

Niall MacKenzie

Immediately after the game we reported:

Still in the sh*t

"He's the one who's cleared the debts, he's the one who's put the money in. He's the one who's got Newcastle out of the s***."

The BBC were forced to apologise after their live link up with interim Newcastle boss Joe Kinnear on Football Focus included the above pearl of wisdom about Mike Ashley.

Just to clarify this, the beeb were sorry for the naughty word that slipped out, not the grossly misleading nonsense about the owner getting the club out of the brown stuff. 

Certainly anybody watching the game a few hours later would attest that we're knee deep in it - and sinking.

Although he'd told the press that his temporary tenure on Tyneside wasn't due to begin until Monday, Kinnear's name appeared on the match teamsheet as Newcastle boss.

He sat in the Directors Box alongside Derek Llambias, didn't pick the team but gave the pre-match and half time team talks and appeared in the player's tunnel at one point.

That later became more significant when it emerged that Kinnear was actually still due to serve a two-match touchline ban arising from a incident that took place in the final days of his time in charge of Forest - in 2004.

Presumably Newcastle will now claim that he was the manager for this game and as a consequence will serve the second game of that ban at Goodison next Sunday.

You really couldn't make this up.