Toon fans can accept defeat - but not a team that doesn't try and lacks spirit

NEWCY FROWN ... Yohan Cabaye and Moussa Sissoko trudge off after the humiliating defeat to Liverpool

EMBARRASSING, gutless, clueless but most of all very, very worrying.

Newcastle fans can throw in their own adjectives if there are better ones to describe what they witnessed at St James’ Park late on Saturday afternoon.

A 6-0 trouncing by Liverpool — the club’s worst home defeat since 1925.

You can be excused a bad day at the office.

But, for the second home game running, this lot have not even turned up for work.

I saw the warning signs on Saturday after only two minutes.

In that time I witnessed Philippe Coutinho twice receive the ball and have time and space to pick his pass.

Nobody was within 20 yards of the Brazilian.

Not a tackle, not an attempt to close him down — nothing.

This was supposed to be a Newcastle team determined to wipe away the memory of the 3-0 Sunderland defeat by putting in a spirited display.

Instead, we got this.

It is not as if these last two home games have been against one of this season’s top sides.

Sunderland have been awful for most of the campaign — hence the change of manager.

Liverpool have hardly been hauling up trees by the forest-load either.

But, yesterday, they came to town without their best player Luis Suarez and still destroyed Newcastle.

The Toon Army can just be thankful there are only three games left.

If it was twice that many Alan Pardew’s team could well be bang in trouble.

A five-point gap should give them enough breathing space — with Wigan and Aston Villa facing each other in their final game of the season.

If we do need points, then right now I cannot see us picking up anything away to West Ham or in the final home game against Arsenal.

So we would just have to hope that QPR are so dispirited, they don’t turn up for the Toon’s trip to Loftus Road.

What a situation for Newcastle to find themselves in after last season’s high.

Back then, I thought we massively over-achieved in what was a very good season for the club, promising much for the future. Now we have massively under-achieved.

It has brought calls from many fans for a change of manager.

I would not join that clamour.

I think Pardew has enough credit in the bank from last season to be afforded another chance.

But he is under massive pressure and if this trend continues two months into the next season, there will be even more calls for his head.

So what’s gone wrong so soon after the club were fighting to land a place in the Champions League?

As I have mentioned before in this column, I do believe the board blundered by failing to strengthen in the summer.

Particularly as they had a sapping Europa League campaign to contend with as well this season.

They attempted to right that wrong in the January window.

Initially, those new players performed well on the adrenalin of their moves.

Now they look like rabbits in headlights. They look like they have suddenly realised what the Premier League is all about and found it tough — too tough in some cases. It’s easy to play when things are going well.

Tougher when you have to dig deep. Newcastle fans can accept defeat — but they cannot accept a team that does not try, or lacks spirit.

Look at the difference between the Sunderland players’ attitude and Newcastle’s in the recent derby clash.

Undoubtedly, the arrival of Paolo Di Canio had that change-of-manager effect as can often happen.

But this is one of the biggest derbies in football — and you should not lack motivation for such an occasion on any count.

Pardew pointed to the fact that his players had played in the Europa League the previous Thursday in Lisbon as a contributing factor to their demise.

I don’t buy that.

You lift yourselves for games like this no matter what.

Teams have been playing Wednesday-Saturday or Thursday-Sunday for years now.

But they lost and after drawing at West Brom, the visit of Liverpool gave everyone a chance to put things straight in front of the home fans — it couldn’t have gone worse.

The defensive performance was quite simply the worst I have seen from any side — not just this season but for a good number of years — all over the show.

It must have felt like a training match for Liverpool as it was just so easy to score.

‘Have faith and stick with us’ will be the cry from the manager.

That loyalty he calls upon is being severely tested right now.