12 WTF Moments In Newcastle's Disastrous 14/15 Season

So that was 2014/15: a season that began with so much confidence that new star player Siem De Jong mentioned Champions League qualification just before his thigh exploded (and his lung deflated). The club had spent in the summer - though not enough for some - legitimately beating Barcelona and Real Madrid to a true rising talent and it surely couldn't get any worse than the second half of last season...

How naive we all were. Fast forward 9 months and the club has JUST scraped through the season, not so much flirting with relegation as conceiving illegitimate children in sweaty cloakroom embraces with it. And inevitably, that almost relegation was a bumpy rainbow road of ridiculousness that goes on the ever-growing book of idiotic chapters in Newcastle's recent history.

Because, ironically, nothing is ever as simple as black and white at St. James Park.

Let's get this straight: this isn't just about mistakes - that would be a considerably longer list with a lot of time spent bemoaning Graham Carr's all-too-obvious fallibility - it's more an account of the moments (both good and bad) that left Newcastle fans' jaws hanging. The ridiculous and the sublime beats that both tore your heart out and made sure you'd never really be able to turn your back on the Magpies, even at the darkest moments.

Who would have thought that the steam-roller Champions, who managed to navigate an entire season at Stamford Bridge unbeaten and only succumbed three times away from home would come to St James Park and get beaten? 

And by 10 men, no less.

Not only did that improbable, euphoric victory spell 3 home victories in a row against the Blues at home, it also brought a crashing end to Jose Mourinho's 23 match unbeaten run. It's no wonder he doesn't like playing against the Magpies.

Like the majority of Newcastle's wins to date, it wasn't exactly a matter of tactical superiority: it was more merely a resilience that disappeared without trace at the turn of the year. It was the ultimate smash and grab that signalled the real beginning of the end in terms of the form table, but it was a gloriously unexpected winter gift all the same.