Former Toon Coach Warns Us Of Leeds Disaster!
John Carver (talking to the Chronicle): "I'm concerned, because I've seen teams before say they are too good to go down.
"We're now getting down to the nitty gritty. There are 10 games left and it's tight down there.
"The next three or four fixtures are really tough games - I'm talking about the Hull and Stoke games more than anything.
"Not Arsenal or Chelsea, because I know top players can easily motivate themselves against the top sides.
"They have nothing to lose and they can go out and perform like they did against Man United. It's when they go to Hull and Stoke that you find out about the players.
"For the sake of the fans and the club, we've got to get out of trouble. It's no good talking about it - action has to happen now on the pitch.
"I look at Kevin Keegan's era when we had Ginola (pictured left), Ferdinand, Beardsley and Shearer - they were all players who could win a game by themselves.
"With Sir Bobby, we had Alan again, Robert, Dyer, Bellamy and Jenas. They were all explosive and they could win games for you.
"At the moment I can't really see that. People like Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Oba Martins have all been out, so we need to get them back and firing on all cylinders again quickly.
"You only need to ask Leeds United about getting out of the Championship. They'll tell you.
"For me, the Championship is tougher than the Premier League. There are 18 teams expecting to get promotion with four teams happy to survive.
"The pressure is immense. We got to the play-off final and then Leeds got relegated.
"It's not easy and the key is not to go into the Championship in the first place - it's much harder than it was 10 years ago.
"When you come to play in front of 50,000 at St James's you want to do well.
Other sides will love coming to St James's and want to put on a performance.
"That would make it even harder.
"I'm praying we don't even get into that and, like every Geordie, I'm just desperate to see Newcastle stay up."