Forget the humiliation of losing to a side below us in the table who would have gone bottom had we won; discard the on-field failings and off-field rancour from the away section - the most unpalatable thing about this debacle was the smug facial expression of the Rovers boss.

Sam Allardyce watched on as his current side struggled through to half time without conceding a goal, before netting three without reply in a second half when his former employers surrendered with barely a whimper. 

And he will have gained special satisfaction from hearing the large travelling contingent switch their vocal output from mocking him to abusing their current manager and owner, as well as dredging up Keegan-related chants.

United had dominated a fairly uneventful first half, with Andy Carroll coming closest to scoring when heading past the post early on and later seeing an effort blocked on the goal line. Butt meanwhile spooned over a good chance.

The home defence didn't seem to relish a physical battle with the young striker, but crucially our set pieces and service to the forwards was again poor - with Duff especially profligate on his return to Ewood Park. 

Into the second half and to a backdrop of "Big Sam's boring football" and other more choice anti-Sam chants from the Darwen End, Owen broke forward but strangely elected to pass rather than shoot.

Rather more direct just moments later was Carroll, who turned and cracked a fierce shot narrowly wide. 
Unfortunately that proved to be the last semblance of entertainment - or hope - for those travelling fans gathered behind that goal.

Former Rover Given had brought applause from all four sides of the ground when he palmed away a McCarthy free kick, but could do nothing when the same player lined up to beat him from the penalty spot soon after.

Despite being half the pitch away, referee Rob Styles decided that David Edgar's foul on the striker was illegal and awarded his third spot kick against us in as many games this season and the ninth in our 22 Premier League games.  

The heavens opened at that point and almost before we'd had time to regroup, Rovers poured forward again and Pedersen's pass caught our defence napping as Roberts blasted home a second goal just five minutes later.

It took Kinnear almost another ten minutes however to make a change, with surprise substitute Joey Barton appearing for the uninterested N'Zogbia, who was rightly booed for his non-performance.

And the by-now enraged Newcastle fans had to wait still longer for Gutierrez to appear off the bench, having been warming up almost since the first whistle. 

There seemed to be a certain reluctance on the part of JFK to make the switch, which at the time was being interpreted as defiance in the face of crowd pressure - but was later claimed to be because Jonas wasn't 100% fit. 

His appearance by then though was academic, with United quickly down to 10 men as Butt let his frustration get the better of him with a rash challenge that earned him a second yellow card - and then saw him unwisely kick the ball at Styles as he departed from the field.

A third goal rounded off the misery and saw Given forced to intervene as an enraged Barton seemed set to make his point to the culpable Jose Enrique rather too forcefully.

By now the Toon supporters had moved on to that old favourite "we're sh*t and we're sick of it", with more than a few choruses of "Joe Kinnear, you're having a laugh" - and bursts of "Keegan Wonderland" and sundry Ashley insults.

The final whistle saw a handful of players applaud the away end - urged by Chris Hughton - but Shay Given made his way quickly down the tunnel and out of sight, forsaking his regular appreciation of the fans.

If he'd finally reached the point of no return with this bloody cowboy outfit, then we couldn't blame him.

We may be 13th in the league but we are lucky not to be adrift in the bottom three at this stage, saved only by the surrounding mediocrity - not least on the Tees and wear.

Two weeks remain to bolster a squad to keep us in the top flight - but without buying two full backs then frankly, we may as well lodge bids for Girls Aloud. 

After ever-increasing amounts of verbal diarrhoea from Kinnear culminated in his new contract codswallop, the best thing he can do now is keep his trap shut in public and get on the "trombone" to try and pull us out of the proverbial.

What a pity though he didn't fancy taking on Allardyce in some technical area jousting today, after a warm up bout with his midget pal in midweek - it would have been nice to see someone related to United show some fight...