Hull won, and probably deserved it because the seemed to want it more, which is unforgivable for a Newcastle side playing at St James' Park.
But, do we blame the players or the manager?
Obviously the players are the ones on the pitch doing the business (or NOT, as in this case) but I'm never convinced they know what is asked of them.
So often it is eleven individuals going about their individual tasks, and rarely do we see the one-touch magic that makes a team a "team"!
Barcelona look a finally tuned unit, and every club is trying to copy them. But it is more than just having great players. You need that "unit", players who are comfortable together.
Do we get that at Newcastle?
I don't believe Pardew does the research Sir Bobby did, and he has nowhere near the same tactical brain.
Sir Bobby knew what faced him every game, and had every team scrutinized to the minor degree. Mainly their weaknesses.
Pardew seems to throw the players onto the pitch and hopes for the best. It happened against Hull.
Was there a plan? I didn't see it.
Alan Pardew: "The result was disappointing after such a good run.
“That’s what we know about this place, it’s about momentum. Unfortunately, we’ve thrown it out of the window today.
“We had a nice bit of momentum coming into the day, and everybody feeling good, with a victory that looked on the cards.
“But that is what the Premier League does unfortunately, and you’ve got to be consistent in every game to get you the wins that you need.
“I wouldn’t say creativity (was the problem). It wasn’t any individual’s performance that cost us the game today. It was a collective effort and it’s the collective effort we need to find consistency in.
“I thought the whole team defensively should have been more committed. It was that tightness at Villa that got us the victory.
“I can’t say it’s a day that I’m going to fondly remember. You know, I’m standing on the sidelines and I am a little bit disappointed with a lot of factors about today’s game.
“But the thing that we must improve on is our consistency of performance, as individuals and as a team.
“That is what got us to finish in fifth place two years ago.
“This is a place where we need to crank it up all the time and keep the pressure on. I think when we scored, we just went down a gear and that is sometimes enough to give hope to the opposition.
“They got the goal, and then they probably felt that they could score again, and they ended up doing that.
“In terms of Hull’s display today, it was very good. All their players played very well.”