Mick Quinn slams three Newcastle United players after Blackburn Rovers loss

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All is not well at St James’ Park and below-par performances from key players is hardly helping.

Most Championship clubs would snap your hand off at the prospect of ringing in the New Year second in the table, six points clear of third place. But Newcastle United are not most Championship clubs.

At this level, a squad blessed with proven Premier League talents, managed by a Champions League winner are expected to win every week. Therefore, that makes their seventh league defeat of the campaign all the more shocking.

With just over a month separating the two encounters, The Magpies lost once again to Blackburn Rovers. The scoreline identical; 1-0. The goalscorer identical; Charlie Mulgrew. The time? Almost identical. The defender’s winner at Ewood Park in the first fixture of 2017 came just two minutes later than his set-piece strike at St James’ in November.

And with Brighton, managed by former Newcastle gaffer Chris Hughton no less, clear at the top, Newcastle must face up to the prospect of finding a way to put their rather substantial wobble behind them. After all, only one Championship team in the last three seasons has ever won the league after losing seven games or more.

And former Newcastle legend Mick Quinn has hardly held back in his assessment of another sub-standard performance, singling three players out for criticism.

“Poor 2^nd half,” the former striker wrote on Twitter. “I had more influence on the game sitting on the couch than Gouffran, Diame and Colback.”

Yoan Gouffran, out of contract at the end of the season, will have done his chances of earning a new deal no help with an anonymous performance while Jack Colback and Mo Diame (below) once again failed to perform to the required level in the centre of the park.

Former Sunderland midfielder Colback has become a highly-derided scapegoat among some supporters for his ineffective displays in the midfield and Diame, a marquee summer signing from Hull, continues to drift through games.

If Newcastle do indeed recover to gain promotion, Rafa Benitez will need to have a long hard think about which players he would trust enough to take to the top flight.