With gale-force winds blasting down the Stoke pitch, any manager worth his salt would have told his players to "try a dig" when they had the wind at their backs in the first half.
NOT McCLAREN!
United sat back and soaked up the pressure, without making one single attempt at scoring.
Was there a Newcastle man of the match? I will be honest with you ... NOBODY deserved it.
What the hell McClaren sees when his team takes to the field is NOT what the rest of us see.
Fans - me included - were baying for his blood last night, and with every justification.
As for WALLY WITH THE BROLLY ... this is what he said:
Steve McClaren felt he witnessed what could be the start of Newcastle's survival fight take shape at Stoke, even though they slipped to a sixth successive away defeat in the Barclays Premier League.
The Magpies were back in action after an 18-day hiatus and were nine minutes away from claiming a point that would have moved them out of the bottom three before Xherdan Shaqiri fired in a 25-yard winner in the Potters' 1-0 win.
He praised goalkeeper Jack Butland, who only had ONE shot to save.
Newcastle have not won on their travels since a trip to Tottenham on December 13 and, while they left Staffordshire empty-handed, McClaren thought they produced an improved showing from their 5-1 loss to Chelsea last time out.
"We didn't deserve that," McClaren declared.
"Jack Butland has become a bit of a curse this season for us. Four magnificent saves at St James' and one at the end there which denied us a point. That's the difference at the present moment.
"But, the last 18 days, we talked a lot about what we need to do and I think we started that process tonight in terms of attitude, work-rate and becoming harder to beat. I thought we were very organised, very disciplined.
"We stifled, frustrated Stoke - so much so that I think they had one shot in the second half and it's a goal. Treacherous conditions and I thought we deserved to fight our way to at least a point.
"If you had seen the performance at Chelsea compared to this evening...(it's) most definitely (an improvement). I thought there were good individual performances, a good team performance - you could see there was a determination, a work-rate for each other and a spirit there.
"This game's cruel and it's been cruel to us again. Dust yourselves down and we go again on Saturday."