A furious Freddie Shepherd will read the riot act when he returns to work at St James's Park this morning.
But it will be Newcastle's players rather than Glenn Roeder who will bear the brunt of their chairman's anger after the pitiful performance that has plunged the club into crisis.
The Magpies slid into the top-flight relegation zone after a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sheffield United at the weekend and, with only goal difference keeping the club off the bottom of the Premiership, the pressure is building to an intolerable level.
Although there were reports suggesting Roeder's brief tenure is approaching an end, the 50-year-old insisted he does not expect to be relieved of his duties.
Instead, it is the club's under-performing players upon whom Shepherd will concentrate his ire this morning having last night flown back to the North-East following a short break in Spain. Furious supporters staged demonstrations against the club's embattled chairman both during and after their troubled team's seventh league fixture without a win but Roeder has told fans demanding a boardroom change that Shepherd is not responsible for the present plight.
"I think it goes without saying that the chairman was not out there playing," said a manager who made no excuses for a performance he rates as the worst of his nine-month tenure. "Generally, I'm a `we and us' person. But in this case, I have to say that it's my responsibility completely.
"I would not hide behind the chairman, I expect to be standing up there in front of him because I'm the manager of this team. I would not hide behind anybody, I have to live with myself.
"He (Shepherd) has given me complete responsibility and I accept that responsibility - I wouldn't want it to be any other way. I will say it again: the responsibility for results is mine and no one else's. That's how it should always be for a manager."
Given the ferocity of the protests against the Shepherd regime, Roeder's ready acceptance of the blame appears a shrewd political move on his part, yet the 50-year-old understands that the pressure placed on a chairman is inevitably deflected on to the shoulders of his manager. And although Shepherd was not at St James's Park to hear the demonstrations for himself, he has still taken a dim view of what happened.
The two men will discuss the fraught situation but there is not expected to be an imminent change in management.
"I don't feel under pressure, no," insisted Roeder. "And if I don't feel under pressure, I'm not fearful for my job. Glenn Roeder has stood up all his life and he will stay standing, whatever happens to him.
"I'm really not happy with the situation, it's not nice, and no one is hurting more than me. But it needs someone with broad shoulders. I have broad shoulders and I need players with broad shoulders, players who will stand alongside me, not behind me.
"The supporters have to know that the players are hurting as much as they are. I have been here as a player and I know what it is like. Now is the time to stand up."
Roeder's team have taken just eight points from a possible 33 this season and have not won a Premiership fixture in seven weeks. The club's league position is dire and a dramatic improvement is required if relegation is to be avoided.
"It has been a very disappointing start to the Premiership season," added Roeder. "But for myself, the staff and the players to start talking about relegation is premature. We need to get our focus back and start winning. That was the poorest the team has played since I took charge, there's nothing else that even comes close to that.
"The boys have put in a performance that is just not acceptable at Newcastle United and they have to be big enough to accept it. If they can't, there's a problem, but I don't think that's the case.
"We have to be man enough to say we got what we deserved. I must make sure that was a one-off."
Roeder admitted the decision to face the Blades less than 48 hours after Newcastle's Uefa Cup fixture at Palermo in order to collect a six-figure TV payment from Sky had not helped his side's efforts, although six of those who started on Saturday evening did not feature in Sicily.
And Neil Warnock rubbed salt in black-and-white wounds by insisting he has long considered the Magpies a team his side can finish above in the Premiership.
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