Alan Pardew said:

"It was a painful day for Newcastle. First half we could not have played better, you could see the extra quality. At that point you'd like to think we'd get away from them, but second half we could not get a grip of the game and, as well as we defended, we gave away two sloppy goals.

"That is something we will sort out this week and hopefully we will in a positive way."
 

One French national may have made his home debut and another produced a goalscoring return to the home side, but they were both overshadowed by the contribution of a visiting player with a Gallic-sounding surname who actually hails from Stockport.

The SJP DJ aired "I'm A Boy" and "Baba O'Reilly" but could have easily have made it a hat trick of Who tracks by spinning "Substitute" at full time, in tribute to Adam Le Fondre ("Won't Get Fooled Again" with it's "meet the new boss" line may have been appropriate for disgruntled home fans...)

Ex-Stockport, Rochdale and Rotherham forward Le Fondre replaced old boy Danny Guthrie and went on to grab his ninth and tenth Premier League goals of the season - compare that to the four that our sole striking threat Papiss Cisse has managed, only three of which he actually knew about. 

The two goals in eight minutes from his first two touches of the ball - one via his breast plate and the other from his foot - were enough to push Alan Pardew and his side further into the merde, as yet another lead was squandered and another opportunity to take points from fellow strugglers was spurned. It need hardly be said that we gifted points to yet another of Pardew's old sides.  

In fairness though, there was little mystery about what Reading achieved, having done exactly the same the previous Saturday when sending Le Fondre on to help turn a 0-2 deficit at home to West Brom into an eventual 3-2 victory. Presumably that was witnessed and noted - assuming that our penny-pinching hasn't extended to no longer sending someone to actually watch the opposition.

Featuring the thoroughly rotten Adrian Mariappa in the heart of a creaky defence (one previous Toon transfer target we're more than pleased to have missed out on), Reading were comfortably the weakest side to have visited Gallowgate domestically this season in the opening 45 minutes.

With the visitors conceding ground far too easily, Newcastle could hardly do anything but press on and a trio of chances came to Cisse only to be wasted, two of them gilt-edged opportunities when he blasted the ball straight at 'keeper Adam Federici.

Mercifully though, the breakthrough came through when a rare forward movement at pace ended with Sylvain Marveaux being chopped down just outside the Gallowgate End box, Yohan Cabaye stepping up to strike a perfect free-kick into the top corner of the goal.

If history is to repeat itself, defeat at the hands of Reading and the consequent reaction of Toon fans proved to be the point of no return for Sam Allardyce here, when his negatively-minded side were deservedly beaten 1-2 at the Madejski in October 2007 - although he limped on for another dozen games after that. 

There seems to be a certain amount of fatigue with the public comments of the manager and putting aside the anger generated among a thoroughly hacked off fanbase by being blamed for spreading "negative vibes" (something backed up by the glass house-dwelling Nile Ranger on Twitter later that night), the inconsistent messages from Pardew point at someone beginning to unravel.

Lamenting that things don't go your way when you're down at the bottom of the league does of course conveniently ignore the fact that our opponents lay beneath us. And similarly, his selection of Steven Taylor and Ranger on the bench was odd, given that he later confirmed the former wasn't fit enough to play and then bemoaned the lack of a substitute forward to turn the game round. Picking just five subs may have been a more obvious ploy to try and get his "help wanted" message over....

The comments of "You don't know what you're doing" though could just has easily have been addressed to those sitting a few rows behind him as to the manager, as we once again shamble through another transfer window with a strategy more and more akin to the McKeag era. 

Only a clown or a criminal would pay Loic Remy's ransom/wages, but surely there's a middle ground of moderately talented assets with something to contribute in the way of leadership and experience, not random teenagers from the continent who may be worth a few extra euro in years to come? 

For the sake of recording the fact (again), replacing departed players isn't enough - that ignores the numerical issues and the fact that many of our first-choice lot just aren't good enough. Coloccini leaves and is replaced, but the two options to partner the new man are either incapable of retaining fitness over a season or not fit for purpose. You're no better off in here and now.

The proximity to our last self-inflicted demotion means that Newcastle supporters are collectively apprehensive when similar circumstances present themselves, as happened on Saturday. And who can blame them, as they see the same ham-fisted responses on and off the field as in 2009?

Biffa