I hadn’t known the stat Newcastle United had the worst record of any club in English football for results on Boxing Day. But it makes perfect sense doesn’t it? All those decades of away matches the day after Christmas Day and the uncanny knack of our club to hit us where it hurts combined to make it a racing certainty we’d get a thunderous kick in the balls after spraying on the LYNX Africa and heading for Gallowgate on the 26th.

We were terrible v Forest once we’d conceded that equaliser at the arse end of the first half having looked like we were about to add a second and wrap the game up only moments earlier. Then we fell to pieces with one mistake after another but more-so we lacked the energy and drive that has taken United from facing relegation in October 2021 to becoming a club that counts again. Intensity has not been our identity in this last month as it was so many of its predecessors in 2023.

We are in a rut. Defeats at the hands of less celebrated opposition (Everton, Bournemouth, Luton, Forest) in the PL with other losses at Brighton and Spurs means our solitary away win to Sheff Utd makes thoughts of a return to Champions League qualification in danger of becoming remote.

We have gone out of the Champions League on account of a mixture of bad fortune (the PSG penalty) and poor defending (Milan (h)) which means we go into 2024 with no European competition. The gut-wrenching equaliser we suffered in the 92^nd minute away at Chelsea meant there was an inevitability to lose on penalties. We’ve all seen that movie before.

Right now the season looks a bit of a write-off until I remind myself we’re still in the FAC and we can have a good go at qualifying for the Europa League. I had convinced myself we’d be in the mix for a CL place by the end of the year, would qualify for the last 16 of the CL and be in the semis of the League Cup. By every measure we haven’t achieved any of those objectives.

There are of course multiple reasons for where we are. After finishing the 22/23 season with a freakishly small amount of injuries the balance of probabilities has caught up badly with us and Darsley Park’s treatment room is full to overflowing.

The players we relied on for so much last season are showing signs of wear and tear and although I have no beef with the quality of the four players brought in last summer, only one of them, Livramento has made any meaningful impact as we get to the halfway stage.

We did our dough on Sandro Tonali from the San Siro as our marquee signing which may have signalled a change in our style of play (he isn’t the central defensive midfielder some thought we were looking for) but as we know he is banned for 10 months for gambling offences. The man from Milan is now confined to training at Benton whilst glowering from the stands on match-days. Harvey Barnes is out with a toe injury and Lewis Hall is being introduced slowly into the first team. On Hall this is a tried and tested method Howe deploys with some new signings and I’d anticipate at some time when Hall is blooded properly, he’ll have a similar impact to Livramento.

But in the here and now the summer window’s recruitment has barely had an impact. That is one for Dan Ashworth to chew over as we head into January with Howe obviously in need of recruits.

Ashworth can reflect upon the positions of Ritchie, Dummett and Manquillo who are largely unused by Howe. Good for the dressing room they may be but if they aren’t being called upon now in the teeth of an injury crisis then when? Again, that’s for Dan Ashworth to ponder.

Aside from the players who are confined to the sick-bay, we can all see several lads have been playing with injuries (Schar, Gordon, Isak, Wilson) and others have not reached their full levels of fitness having returned from injury too (Longstaff, Burn). Others look fatigued physically and mentally (Trippier, Almiron) and there is probably a combination of all of that with the entire squad.

Shit happens of course but that doesn’t mean everything might be down to bad luck. Going forward we look predictable. The out-ball to the Almiron-Trippier on the right hand side looks tired and very possibly worked out. Gordon along with Bruno has been our best performer of the first half of the season but is running on empty and lacking a final product away from home in particular. Guimarães was excellent in a more advanced position v Fulham but is too often required deeper where he is the maestro most of the time.

But sometimes we can be accused of recency bias and forget what we have achieved this season. We have defeated Villa, PSG, Man Utd (home and away in league and cup), Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City too. There have been times this season we have looked exceptional. But too few players have played too much football.

I must confess to sneering at those who start asking questions of Howe – whether they are paid to write anything that comes into their heads in the mainstream media or knee-jerk smacked arses (almost always craving attention on social media) with the lip on because their team has lost a few games. Don’t get me started on the Jose Mourinho crap which is nonsense on stilts.

Everyone of course is entitled to have an opinion but some of those opinions are bollocks. You might be reading this and be thinking look who is talking and you’d have a point.

Some of the wild talk on social media will be picked up by the national media and twisted into something its not. That happens for several reasons but is mainly to do with a relentless quest for clicks as well as an inherent anti-Newcastle United bias prevalent in a significant proportion of the football press. Remember the palaver about Nunez coming here from Saudi and the fannies writing all manner of outraged garbage? That was never ever true but it was written anyway, got the clicks and then we move onto some other rubbish.

Should we lose heavily at Liverpool (and I am braced for that) then the forthcoming FAC tie in the Village of the Damned is going to be framed as a do or die fixture for Howe. Oh look it has already started from the laughably obvious quarters.

So what’s to be done?

Well, it would be wonderful if Howe could get back to training his players properly and not be afraid of picking up yet more injuries. It would be equally as good if some players could come back from injury but we’re not likely to see that until the end of January.

We can all recite the problems the club has with third party sponsorships as well as Financial Fair Play but Eddie Howe needs some help from the club and I would hope that would be in the form of players who can come into the first team picture for this season and the longer term.

I don’t like writing this as much as you won’t enjoy reading it but I expect things will get worse before they get better. In the Premier League we have Liverpool and Villa away from home as well as Man City visiting SJP. There’s also the small matter of an FAC tie away to Sunderland.

We should remember we have been on an upward trajectory since October 2021 and subsequently Howe’s arrival at United. Howe has transformed Newcastle United, providing us with a purpose and identity.

The players and supporters have a bond and a spirit. That has to serve us when the going gets tough – as it is unquestionably is now and I expect will get worse. We should and will stick together.

This poem enclosed means a lot to me and its words have served me over my life – lots of you will be familiar with it but here it is anyway – click here .

As ever, thank you for reading my old toffee and all the very best to you and yours for 2024.

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

Michael Martin, @TFMick1892