I travelled to the Britannia Stadium for Newcastle's away game at Stoke on Saturday, and came away convinced United are embroiled in a relegation battle.
The similarities between this team and the one relegated two years ago are starting to become obvious, with the side showing little fight in the Potteries.
This, coupled with the sides at the bottom consistently picking up points means 36 points is simply not enough, two or three more wins are still needed.
Yes, home games against Wolves, Birmingham and West Brom represent great opportunities to pull out of danger, but failing to pick up maximum points from two of those games will leave United slipping towards the Championship for the second time in three seasons.
When Jose Enrique's name was announced in the starting line-up, I predicted he'd be withdrawn by half-time. Sure enough, 25 minutes in and he was off with a recurrence of his hamstring problem.
It was a reckless decision from Alan Pardew to play Enrique, as pushing dodgy hamstrings to the limit always ends in tears.
Enrique may now be a doubt for the clash with Wolves in two weeks, whereas if he had been left out of this game he would have surely got the injury out of his system.
As for the tactics, a 5-3-2/3-5-2 formation was decent thinking by Pardew but it was executed in completely the wrong way.
For one, the choice of playing Sol Campbell was always going to be questionable, given Steven Taylor was fit and on the bench.
An element of blame can be attached to him for Stoke's first three goals, and his performance was generally that of a player well past his best.
He was completely outmuscled and looked out of his depth at this stage of this career.
Yes, he may have done a good job for Arsenal last season.
But Arsenal do not come under as much pressure as Newcastle, and Campbell has now been found wanting on numerous occasions this season.
Shola had one of those days where he doesn't seem interested (although some may say he is like this every game unless United are playing Sunderland).
He is just not brave enough. This may be because he is not confident enough in the mask, but if that is the case, he shouldn't be playing.
But even if he was decent in the air, he would always likely be second best to Robert Huth and Ryan Shawcross.
They are immense at dealing with the long ball, but Newcastle just continued to fall into the trap of hitting it long.
Performances like this, where the lack of width in the team makes it easy for the opposition, makes the decision to let Wayne Routledge go out on loan all the more crazy.
Routledge isn't a great player, but he can make an impact. It would certainly be a better option than anything else the club has.
All in all, it was just a very negative game and one to strike fear and a sense of deja vu into all Newcastle fans.
The second goal summed it up.
Steve Harper, seemingly more interested in tying his shoelace, gifted the ball to Kenwyne Jones, with the ball eventually being crossed into the box. Campbell flapped at a header and left Jermaine Pennant with the easy task of stroking the ball into the net.
Campbell was also at fault for the first after Jonathan Walters got on the wrong side of him to glance in a header.
The third was an unstoppable piledriver of a free-kick from Danny Higginbotham and the fourth an excellent finish from Ricardo Fuller, with Newcastle lacking ideas similarly to games at Bolton, West Brom and Tottenham amongst others earlier in the season.
We've been here before. 2008/09 was a catastrophic season for the club, but it bounced back as it kept hold of key players.
But if relegation was to happen this season, the likes of Tiote, Enrique, Coloccini, Gutierrez and Barton would be out of the door in a flash. It would be ten times harder to bounce back this time.
Every decision made at boardroom level has destabalised the club.
The two main ones, to sack Chris Hughton and sell Andy Carroll, look all the more laughable now.
Hughton was doing a tremendous job, and if Mike Ashley's man Pardew delivers relegation, Newcastle will once again become the laughing stock of English football.
£35m is a lot of money, but it won't be any good in the Championship.
Come to think of it, it will never be seen again anyway as Ashley is likely to hoover it up as he did with the fees for Shay Given and Charles N'Zogbia the last time the club was in the Premier League.
So Carroll wanted another new contract. The club should have given him it, you can't put a price on goals.
United look static up front, with the lazy Ameobi and aging Lovenkrands failing to deliver.
Leon Best has been decent, but it is saying something that Newcastle missed him on Saturday.
Six months ago, Best wasn't even getting a look in. Now, he is seemingly the key striker and that shows how far Newcastle have fallen in the last few months.
As for the support, the Toon Army were magnificent as always, sticking with the team throughout and even applauding them off at the end despite a woeful performance.
Stoke fans lived up to their loud reputation with some rousing renditions of 'Delilah' and 'Joey Barton, he hits like a girl', with their team giving them plenty to shout about.
As for me, this was my 16th away game as a Newcastle fan. The general away day experience at Stoke is very good, helped by the fact that the view of the pitch is excellent (my view can be seen in the picture at the top of this article), as well as a good home support who provide genuine competition in the singing stakes.
My away record reads as follows:
2003/04:
Man City: LOST 0-1
2004/05:
Man Utd: LOST 1-2 (Yes, that was the game when Rooney scored THAT goal)
2005/06:
Everton: LOST 0-1
2006/07:
Sheffield United: WON 2-1
2007/08:
Blackburn: LOST 1-3
Everton: LOST 1-3
2008/09:
Middlesbrough: DREW 0-0
Blackburn: LOST 0-3
Hull: DREW 1-1
2009/10:
Barnsley: DREW 2-2
Peterborough: WON 3-2
2010/11:
Wolves: DREW 1-1
Man City: LOST 1-2
Bolton: LOST 1-5
Tottenham: LOST 0-2
Stoke: LOST 0-4
My luck will change one day. Or so I keep telling myself.
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