Predictions

As NUFC stumble towards the end of the season, the prospect of starting next season in the Championship is an increasingly real one. There are some bald facts, the squad isn't good enough, the players that we have out injured aren't coming back quick enough to make a difference, the team have already drawn too any games that they should have won (last Saturday being a case in point) and most importantly, the games that we have left to play are against better opposition than teams around us.

Yesterday's result was no surprise, I expected to lose against Arsenal and the lads didn't disappoint. What was perhaps more telling was that even though it was live on the TV, I didn't watch it. This wasn't some hissy fit protest over the rubbish that I traveled to watch at Hull (although it was tempting), simply real life got in the way. I was coming back home from visiting my Mother, it being Mothering Sunday and being unable to get to see her on the actual day. But, like Y I, Mum I chose not to watch the game. It was so predicable that Newcastle would slip into the bottom 3, and I can't really see us clambering out from that spot before May.

For a start look at the games left to play:-

• Chelsea (h)
• Stoke (a)
• Tottenham (a)
• Portsmouth (h)
• Liverpool (a)
• Smoggies (h)
• Fulham (h)
• Villa (a)

Even with my most optimistic head on, I can see only two wins and maybe a lucky draw from that lot. Which would make NUFC's points total 36, which isn't going to be enough.

The other thing is that Newcastle are simply playing worse than most of the teams around us, West Brom and the Smoggies excepted. No wins for the last five games and only 3 goals scored tells its own story.

What may be the final nail in the relegation coffin is the lose yesterday of Bassong. The only player to come out of this season with any real credit, a maturing young defender, and probably the best centre half I've seen in a black and white shirt since Woodgate managed to play two games on the trot for Newcastle. It isn't a coincidence that Arsenal scored their goals yesterday after he went off.

It's not going to be pretty over the next 8 games, but I believe it will be Blackpool next season, rather than Blackburn (which may be a blessing, at least it will be an Allardyce free zone)