Alan Pardew said:

"It was all good up until when it kicked off - it was nice to see some old friends and nice for the fans to give us a nice ovation but obviously it stopped when they got amongst us.

"Perhaps we need them more than we did last year because the team really needs a lift."

A midweek visit to Stoke is probably the last place to visit as we try and halt the slide, although Ba's hat-trick there last season was one of the highlights of the season. That win came against a Potters side who were attempting to juggle the extra demands of a Europa League campaign with domestic commitments. The boot is firmly on the other foot this time round though.

City currently boast the best defensive record on home soil in the country and the possibility of United losing four consecutive league games for the first time since the 2008/09 relegation season looms large, with only the return of Fabricio Coloccini from suspension providing any comfort ahead of what looks like an equally miserable trek across the country.

Returning home after this one was an elongated and miserable affair; periodic downpours only adding to the gloom now that the dark nights are back, both metaphorically and meteorologically speaking.

Going slightly deeper than immediate post-match "useless so-and-so's" rage/inquest though, trying to make sense of our current plight is a task bordering on an lifetime obsession. And as in most cases when there's a drains up, the root cause is revealed to be a combination of failures.

The level of injuries we've suffered from have to be mentioned, as it seems hard to credit that it's all down to misfortune. The only difference from previous years seems to be that more of the problems look to be happening during games rather than in training - the latter haunting us to such an extent during the Graeme Souness era that he swapped training grounds with the Academy. Maybe it's just down to the stupid bloody coloured clown shoes that masquerade as football boots these days.

And the universal clamour of "told you so" currently being heard focuses on the failure to strengthen ahead of this season of increased commitments, with full back rightly seen as the chief failing, but not the only one. That particular situation has been exacerbated by the current media nonsense surrounding Danny Simpson - a man soon to be contractless and who was surplus to requirements last season but now a first-choice selection. He hasn't got better, we've just got worse.

If the most regrettable pronouncement of Pardew's time in charge was the Carroll stays, then his fanciful talk about getting his hands on a cup this season runs it a close second. Teaming up with a gang metal thieves would seem his best hope of securing silverware at present, with good fortune already coming our way in the form of the Europa League draws throwing up pliant opposition.

Presumably that loose talk was based on the expectation of getting new recruits - further proof that the manager says one thing and is then told another; something that's harder to get past when it's his own players left feeling misled, rather than journalists and supporters. 

Inevitably there's disquiet in the camp - agents wouldn't be doing their job if there wasn't. And with the ongoing farce of the transfer window just about to gear up once more, thoughts of the next payday, or what continental players euphemistically call, "project", are never far away.

When opportunity knocks, young pretenders invariably get the chance to fill in, either making their mark or getting found out. From Keith Dyson to Lee Clark, careers have been shaped here by catching a break and doing more than filling a shirt. Chris Waddle did it, Bruce Halliday didn't. 

At the risk of sounding like some Pravda press release from Barrack Road, it's unrealistic to expect that any "normal" football club will possess enough experienced players in cold storage to cope with the level of absenteeism we're currently experiencing.

That's not to say we haven't made a grave and potentially disastrous error of judgment in not arming themselves with defensive cover, but that only the truly wealthy or fiscally incompetent can afford to splash that much cash.

The recent increase in players graduating to the Newcastle first team doesn't imply that we're in the presence of a golden generation and temperatures have suddenly risen in the hotbed, merely that we're relying on the footballing equivalent of seasonal labour to see us through a shortage - a bit like the post office at Christmas.
 
And if you're looking for a measure of our continued failure to develop our own talent to the required level - aside from the presence of Yven Moyo, Mehdi Abeid and Romain Amalfitano - then a check of the teams currently hosting our reserve players out on loan at may provide a clue: Bradford City, Crewe Alexandra, Blyth Spartans, Darlington and St,Mirren - one struggling SPL team and no Championship sides.

We remain advocates of the loan system and certainly James Tavernier benefited more from spending last season playing for various League One clubs than playing reserve games on a windswept training pitch. Compared to other top-flight sides though, our fringe players are invariably deemed capable only of playing at a lower level, consequently missing out on learning from a higher standard of opponent and sampling life at a better club.

And looking at ex-Mags, once you get past the category of "seasoned pro" operating in reduced circumstances like messrs Lovenkrands and Ramage, then there's a big gap. Once upon a time, players who didn't make it at Gallowgate found employment at Brunton Park or Victoria Park. Now they melt away into genuine obscurity, be it in the Conference, Northern League, Ireland or Iceland. Never mind top stars, we no longer produce second-raters who will make a living in the game.

If anything, the lack of suitable cover in the reserves should have had Pardew banging on the door for budget-priced cover from the lower leagues lower this season, knowing that many of those currently in possession of first team squad numbers realistically had no more chance of playing than himself, Woodman, Stone or Carver.

Instead though he's left to muddle through with whatever side he can put out, hoping that the crowd don't turn on him and no more of the random and unforeseen misfortune we're only too familiar with befalls him. At least if his prize assets are knacked, there's less chance of them leaving in January....

We had our own master plan for how this season would go, plodding along in the league to achieve a safe mid-table position - and win the Europa League, emulating the boys of 1969. That's why we're not in charge - and the man who is remains more qualified, experienced and recognised by most of his contemporaries, if the trinkets on his sideboard from last season are any indication.

Pardew has asked for support from the stands, it's time that he got some from the dressing room and people who talk a good fight actually graft for their reward, starting on Wednesday.

Biffa