10 Worst Newcastle Performances This Decade

By Michael Ramsay /

5. Wigan 4-0 Newcastle, 2012

All good things have to come to an end at some point. As Newcastle United supporters were dreaming of Alan Pardew€™s men achieving the impossible and breaching the impenetrable top four, having won six games in a row and kept five clean sheets in the process, they were to come thundering back down to earth at the JJB Stadium in late April 2012. With games against Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton remaining, Pardew knew that he needed a seventh victory on the trot if Newcastle were to have any realistic ambitions of achieving the impossible dream, but they duly ran out of steam in almost comical fashion. After fifteen minutes, they had been run ragged by their old transfer target, Victor Moses, who had dispatched two strikes past Tim Krul. Scottish playmaker Shaun Maloney extended the Latics€™ lead after 36 minutes, before former Chelsea man Franco Di Santo curled home a sumptuous fourth goal before half-time. There was to be no miraculous recovery from a four-goal deficit for Pardew€™s men this time, having roared back against Arsenal the previous campaign, and they were unable to even muster a reply in the second half. It was a dour performance by the Magpies as they had begun to believe their own hype, failing to take into account that Roberto Martinez€™s men had been on a run of form themselves, having won four of the previous six.