Newcastle brought failure upon itself

As harsh as it may sound, says Paul Weaver in the Guardian, "I will not be sorry if Newcastle is relegated on Sunday. After all," he continues, "they have worked so single-mindedly and assiduously for this defining moment."

During a lamentable season, "they have pieced together the wrong owners, the wrong executives, the wrong managers and the wrong players". On the few occasions when they have had something go well for them - the form of goalkeeper Shay Given, for example - they manage to ruin it by "flogging him to Manchester City".

"The famously massed ranks of their supporters deserve more than this, even though they are flawed too, regarding United as a greater club than they truly are," Weaver argues. "Newcastle haven't won an important domestic trophy since 1955. This is a big-ish club, not one of the giants of the contemporary game."

The fans who have blamed current chairman Mike Ashley, and his 'Cockney Mafia' of Dennis Wise, Joe Kinnear and co, acquiesced in the previous stewardship of Freddy Shepherd, "who helped take the club to this precipice".

Concludes Weaver: "If Newcastle fall this weekend don't praise their opponents, Aston Villa, or the desperate survival instincts of Middlesbrough, Sunderland or Hull. Newcastle should take all the credit for seeing their concentrated efforts achieve such an appropriate conclusion." ·