Newcastle suffered one of their worst defeats of the season this afternoon, as a lazy performance at the Britannia Stadium was suitably punished.

Alan Pardew employed a baffling 3-5-2 system with Sol Campbell looking way out of his depth and unfit wing-back Jose Enrique limping off early. If Pardew's intention was to make Steve Harper's penalty area a no-fly zone, it failed miserably and despite what the manager said after the game, picking Campbell ahead of Taylor was misguided. To our eyes Campbell retired at least two years ago....

There were many similarities with our last away game at Birmingham - back in the Midlands again to face a team stuttering in the league and still pinching themselves after making it through to Wembley - even the referee was the same. Unfortunately we were never in the mood to gatecrash the party this time round, although even Pulis thought that they had seen the Lord Mayor's Show last week.

An incredibly inept first half showing saw United trail at the break when Jon Walters had converted a Jermaine Pennant cross in the 28th minute, just three minutes after we lost Enrique with a recurrence of his recent hamstring problems - the second successive game he's gone off before half time.

Only a shot-cum-cross from his replacement Shane Ferguson and a Kevin Nolan snapshot that flew well wide, threatened to get us back on terms, as long balls to a lethargic Shola Ameobi and out-muscled Peter Lovenkrands were nothing short of useless.

But far from re-grouping after the interval though, United came out looking a complete shambles and gifted two shocking goals inside the first five minutes.

Steve Harper made a mess of a clearance and when Danny Higginbotham crossed the ball into the box Campbell headed the ball straight to Pennant who tucked it into an empty net.

Within minutes Stoke got their third when a free-kick was drilled by Higginbotham through the wall and past a static Harper and there was certainly no way back from that.

For the second time in Pardew's Newcastle career, his side were trailing badly with 30 minutes left but there never looked like being an Arsenal repeat. Only a spirited performance from Ferguson, who went on one mesmerising run that almost ended in his first senior goal, gave the excellent away following anything to shout about.

Joey Barton, who had a mixed afternoon, with some mainly poor set-piece deliveries and a bit of play-acting that antagonised the home crowd, began to marshal the midfield and eventually we created a chance or two, Jonas Gutierrez replacing Campbell as United went to 4-4-2.

However, Lovenkrands, Ameobi and substitute Nile Ranger were unable to apply the finishing touch to some probing play that never realistically looked like getting us back into the game with a Barton free-kick the closest we came. There were no exercise bikes on the touchline for the substitutes unlike last time here - although we similarly huffed and puffed and got nowhere again....

Two weeks off seems to have done us no good at all - save for getting Barton back in the team although some late off-the-ball nonsense involving Joey saw any impetus lost as added time loomed. However, City's final goalscorer, Ricardo Fuller, shouldn't have been on the pitch to hit City's fourth having incensed Barton with a kick while the ball was on the other side of the pitch.

Poor referee, Lee Mason, spoke to both players but none of the officials could have seen the incident which was a certain red card. Match of the Day failed to show the incident, although had Barton been the aggressor, several dozen camera angles would doubtless have materialised.

It was an awful end to a horrible day in the Potteries as Stoke recorded their biggest-ever Premier League victory and their largest against us since 1965. And like the 1-5 horror show at the Reebok - we couldn't even blame the blue away kit this time - Pardew & Co must use this as a wake up call if we are to steer clear of the scramble to avoid the drop.

With many teams below us picking up points, our mid-table position now looks far less comfortable, on the back of a run of just one win in nine matches.

We now sit just four points above the drop zone, with another enforced fortnight's break before the visit of Wolves to Tyneside - which will now inevitably be billed as a must-win six pointer. 

And where is Stephen Ireland when we need him? Apparently he was involved in a second off-field misadventure (after his ill-judged words to a French journalist) - he has to do something to fill his time in I suppose, having not featured for us yet - just who did his medical? Add in the dubious value of panic signing Kuqi (whose "passing" in the warm-up had to be seen to be believed) and things don't look great.

For a man widely believed to have found employment via casino connections, Pardew and is gambling and losing. In the short term, risking the fitness of Enrique backfired for a second successive game, recalling Campbell at the expense of Taylor simply never got off the ground and up front, the injury to the in-form Best exposed the weakness of Lovenkrands and masked-man, Shola. There was a criminal lack of movement, and Simpson ended up being our sole outlet down the right as the midfield trio tried to plug gaps elsewhere.

Our former number 9 is back in action for Liverpool, and the last time we were here Carroll offered hope to the hopeless, coming up with a late leveller that only he could have scored - giving us a point that at the time seemed both precious and pivotal. His presence in defence was also missed here today - a key element of the prized victory at Arsenal.

That £35m shaped piece of good business won't look quite so clever if it's followed by another championship sojourn - and this time round Ashley won't have to worry about being saddled with those massive salaries, as the big boys won't hang around for a second time.

We're led to believe that the bad apples took us down last time - hang on though, the ones left are meant to be the good guys. We're now showing the form that saw the trap door open up on Hughton - Pardew has 17 points from 14 games, Hughton managed 16. Good job he signed a five and half year contract then....

Niall & Biffa