Newcastle vs Swansea match report: Mobiles signal a growing crisis as Magpies slump to seventh defeat in a row

Newcastle United 2 Swansea City 3: Fans show their anger with Newcastle's recent slump

(Getty Images)

Football crowds no longer huddle around radios to bring them the news they do not want to hear from other grounds.

A mobile phone is enough to signal things are becoming worryingly grim. At St James’ Park yesterday, the penny dropped when news of Leicester’s lead at Burnley spread.

A miserable season took a real lurch towards disaster for the Magpies, with Newcastle within five points of the relegation spot held by their bitter rivals Sunderland.

Ayoze Perez opened the scoring for the home side (Getty Images)

Hull won yesterday in part due to a goal from Dame N’Doye, signed for £3m in January. Around the same time Newcastle picked up £7m from the sale of Davide Santon to Inter Milan and in compensation after manager Alan Pardew left for Crystal Palace.

They elected to appoint John Carver as their temporary head coach, rather than pursue Steve McClaren. It always looked the cheap option rather than the right one, and Newcastle have won only two of the 16 games they have played under Carver.

Nelson Oliveira equalised right on half-time - his first goal for Swansea (Getty Images)

Saturday’s defeat by Swansea was their seventh in a row in the league. That has not happened to them in the top flight since the 1977-78 season and, unsurprisingly, they were relegated at the end of that campaign.

Carver spoke of fight in the dressing room. It is hard to see any on the pitch. Instead he appeared to be embroiled in an argument with a fan next to the home dugout during the second half.

There had been vocal criticism of the absent owner Mike Ashley in the 34th minute – so chosen because the club announced last week they had £34m sitting in the bank. Some had boycotted the game, but significantly less than had stayed away from the defeat by Tottenham last Sunday.

Gylfi Sigurdsson scored to put Swansea into the lead (Getty Images)

Those there yesterday at least saw Newcastle lead a game, which has not happened for two months, when Ayoze Perez scored. Castro Oliveira equalised in first half stoppage time, and when goals followed from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jack Cork, the game was beyond the limited reach of a dreadful home team.

Siem de Jong, who has barely kicked a ball for Newcastle following his move from Ajax in the summer, volleyed a consolation goal late on, but there is not the desire to scrap for points, which adds to the growing alarm on Tyneside.

Cork scores for Swansea against Newcastle (Getty Images)

Carver said: “When you lose so many games, your confidence will be hit, not just the players but everybody around the stadium. They say, ‘Here we go again’. We kept going but it is not good enough. It has been a battle for four or five weeks. We can’t hide from it.”

Newcastle fans held another protest at St James' Park (Getty Images)

Line-ups:

Newcastle: (4-3-3) Krul; Janmaat (Abeid, 61), Williamson, Coloccini, Anita; Colback, Taylor, Gutierrez; Cabella (De Jong, 74), Perez, Riviere (Armstrong, 75).

Swansea: (4-2-3-1) Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Amat; Shelvey, Cork; Dyer, Sigurdsson (Emnes, 81), Montero (Grimes, 69); Oliveira (Ki, 72).

Referee: Neil Swarbrick 7

Man of the match: Sigurdsson (Swansea)

Match rating: 4/10