43 mins Facing the byline in his own box, Jose Enrique's sought to clear into touch rather than concede a corner, only to hit the ball off Jermaine Pennant and see it loop over a helpless Harper and into the unguarded net. 0-1

45 mins Steven Gerrard ripped through our static rearguard and Fernando Torres supplied an excellent finish on the stroke of half-time, with the crocked Milner giving way to Geremi before 
the game restarted. 0-2

Half time: Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0

51 mins The home side strode down the centre of the field and Torres returned the compliment for Steven Gerrard to clip in a third and the 67th goal Liverpool have scored at Anfield this season in the 24 games played in all competitions. 0-3

Our headline for this one was simple: "Not at the races."

And when the two squads doubtless rub shoulders again later this week at Cheltenham, that old adage about thoroughbreds and selling platers will never have been more fitting.

Quite frankly though, the knackers yard or glue factory would provide more fitting surroundings for our donkeys than the winner's enclosure.

Back in the halycon days of November we faced Rafa's Reds in the heady heights of 10th, falling three behind just after the hour mark, although the gap in class had been evident throughout.

And this was more of the same, except that the home side managed to reach that three goal tally quarter of an hour earlier and rouse a dozing Anfield in the process. 

It was little more than we'd expected, but after 43 minutes of an unspectacular holding operation that had home fans a little restless, the bottom fell out of our world. Again. 

Yet another startling collapse followed after a opening goal that is destined to feature on those footy f*** up DVDs. 

Harper had fallen over and been beaten from the halfway line here last season - this time round his cries of "put it out" were ignored by the hapless Spaniard and the 'keeper was helpless as the ball looped over him. 

And with our players seemingly trying to make sense of the farce that had just unfolded in front of them, the deadly duo of Gerrard and Torres struck again.

TV pictures showed an ashen-faced Kevin Keegan on the Newcastle bench in vaguely similar pose to that caught by cameras in the first of the infamous 4-3 games here

When Harper was picking the ball out of the net for a third time shortly after the restart, a rout looked on the cards.

But no more goals followed and substitute Obafemi Martins came as close as anyone with a 40 yard snap shot reminiscent of Supermac's cracker at Bolton in 1976 - except his found the back of the Burnden Park net while Oba's cannoned off the Anfield Road crossbar with Reina stranded.

It would be nice to write that we'd belatedly solidified and kept Liverpool at bay, but in reality the withdrawal of Gerrard and Torres and the clumsiness of their replacements Kuyt and Crouch had more to do with it staying at 3-0.

Perhaps a return to the formation that saw Faye stationed in front of the back four may have made us slightly less vulnerable to raids down the centre of the park - but that wouldn't have addressed the issue of Pennant finding wide open spaces down the right flank in the first half.

Enrique was having an uncomfortable afternoon before the opener, with Benayoun barely seeing the ball on the left flank and the Spaniard receiving minimal cover from N'Zogbia in front of him.

At the other end our challenge extended to forcing a handful of corners, but the ploy of dropping Smith into midfield and pushing Duff through the middle did little to make Michael Owen's second Anfield return as a Magpie any more productive than the first.

Time was duly played out and we trudged off to applause from the away fans, who in 2008 have paid a total of £145 to see their team concede an average of four goals on their four trips, scoring precisely once. And they wonder why we drink.

But really, did anyone honestly expect anything different - be they fans of either side, players or press box occupants? We've lost here with more talented, committed and in-form Newcastle sides, who showed a damn sight more commitment than was evident here.

Excepting what look like nailed on defeats at Spurs and Pompey, we now face what can be dubbed the four Premier League Fixtures of the Apocalypse: Birmingham, Fulham, the mackems & Reading. 

We can try and keep ourselves warm by looking at the run-ins of other strugglers (Bolton and the mackems especially) but a good proportion of those twelve available points need to be won by our own sweat.

Question is though, do we have enough scrappers and people prepared to close down and harry opponents in the way that Wigan did on Sunday to stifle Arsenal? 

While we'll take it gratefully though, to remain in the top flight due to the inadequacies of others would have something of a hollow ring to it - in our blacker moments there's a small, irresponsible part of us that would almost tolerate demotion if it saw the mercenaries disappearing away down Barrack Road, having failed to win the games that would settle our own destiny. 

This really is the time for some responsibility across the piece; for players not to indulge the media by giving them yet more "time for action"  quotes and more pertinently to quash any talk of new contracts.....Steven.

For supporters, just provide support and encouragement - and bums on (or near) seats. 

Oh aye - and stop writing shite on message boards and spouting on phone ins about matches you haven't been to. None of our games after City are televised, none of our games are sold out...  

Even if it is just a veneer of unity, we need to display a united front for the next two months.

The recriminations can begin on May 12th but until then it's a case of battening down the hatches and hoping that the next visit to Merseyside that closes our season will be a dead rubber.

We've watched on as we went down before, but the only time it came down to the last game was at Filbert Street in May 1992. Memories of the intolerable pressure of that day and the events on and off the field still provoke an involuntary shudder... 

KK saw us through that day, but his current squad are showing little of the fight required. So far. 

Biffa