TOMORROW marks the first anniversary of Sir Bobby Robson's controversial dismissal as Newcastle manager. With the Magpies having picked up just two points from their first four games of last season, chairman Freddy Shepherd decided enough was enough.

Twelve months, and almost £32m later, and the end of the Robson era is already developing a halcyon look. If things then were supposed to be bad, Newcastle's current situation is little short of awful.

Yesterday's 2-0 defeat to Manchester United leaves the Magpies rooted in the bottom three of the Premiership and piles even more pressure on the shoulders of Graeme Souness.

Already out of Europe, Souness' side are a point worse off than they were at this stage of last season and, most worryingly of all, appear to have totally forgotten how to score goals.

More than 550 minutes have passed since a Newcastle player scored a Premiership goal and, despite the multi-million pound signing of Albert Luque, strikers remain an endangered species at St James' Park.

Tellingly, so do disciplined defenders. Souness' much-trumpeted January purchase of Jean-Alain Boumsong was supposed to rectify the defensive frailties that had plagued Robson in the latter stages of his reign but, instead, the Frenchman's two second-half errors merely served to exacerbate the long list of current woes.

The fact that Wayne Rooney profited from Boumsong's two mistakes - scoring Manchester United's first and laying on a late second for Ruud Van Nistelrooy - merely added insult to injury.

The teenager was supposed to be Newcastle's saviour when Shepherd lodged a club record bid for his services last summer but, instead, he opted to head for Old Trafford. Nobody can question the wisdom of his judgement now, just as few would berate Michael Owen should he also spurn Shepherd's advances in the next 48 hours.

Without a home success in the Premiership since March 5, Tyneside is hardly the place to be at the moment. If Luque had no idea what he was walking into on Thursday night, the size of the task ahead will be an awful lot clearer now.

Given that Newcastle managed just two shots on target at Bolton on Wednesday, it was no surprise to see the Spaniard thrown in at the deep end yesterday.

His efforts on his debut were commendable but, after a bright start, the £9.5m man faded fast. In that respect, he was an instant match for his team-mates.

Any notions of Luque being a work-shy winger were quickly dispelled by his first act in English football - a second-minute foul on John O'Shea - and, as well as illustrating his physical capabilities, the attacker also proved his predatory instincts inside the opening quarter of an hour.

After Shearer's swivelled strike was palmed away by Edwin Van Der Sar, Luque was on hand to ram home the loose ball from the edge of the six-yard box.

Sadly, for the Magpies, the Spaniard had strayed a yard offside as Shearer met Celestine Babayaro's driven cross, but his alert reactions at least confirmed Souness' upbeat assessment of his attacking capabilities.

The disallowed goal came at the end of a bright opening spell from Newcastle in which Lee Bowyer saw a left-footed drive deflected wide by Mikael Silvestre before Shearer failed to find the target with a header from the resultant corner.

But, with grim predictability, the home side's early momentum was hastily halted by a re-emergence of their injury woes.

Emre and Kieron Dyer were both rushed back into action after missing Newcastle's last two games. The fact that neither lasted longer than 38 minutes was evident that Souness' gamble on their fitness had clearly failed. It is only to be hoped that neither has sustained more damage because of their hurried returns.

Emre's hamstring injury forced him off midway through the first half while Dyer, who never looked comfortable following a bout of back trouble, was replaced by Shola Ameobi seven minutes before half-time.

The twin changes unquestionably hampered Newcastle's rhythm, and Souness' side were fortunate to find themselves level at the break

Dyer's final act almost proved fatal. He was robbed by Roy Keane while trying to dribble out of defence and, after Van Nistelrooy caressed an inch-perfect through ball behind Taylor, Cristiano Ronaldo saw his first-time strike blocked by the legs of a perfectly-placed Shay Given.

Dyer's error was perhaps understandable given his evident discomfort, but there was no excuse for Bowyer's similar display of slackness less than two minutes later.

The former Leeds midfielder did not even look up before passing the ball straight to Ronaldo, but the Portugal international whistled a rasping drive wide of Given's left-hand upright.

Shorn of their two injured stars, Newcastle's attacking became much more predictable after the break. Bowyer's withdrawal with a muscle strain hardly helped matters and, from looking an adventurous and versatile unit in the first half, the Magpies quickly reverted to a far more predictable type.

An increasingly distant Jermaine Jenas - likely to be the subject of an improved £10m bid from Tottenham - and an inevitably dismal Amdy Faye struggled to cope with the fluidity of Manchester United's second-half attacking, with both Ronaldo and Rooney gradually exerting more of an influence.

Van Nistelrooy profited from the duo's presence in the penalty area in the 58th minute but, after ghosting between Taylor and Boumsong, the Dutchman somehow headed well wide despite finding himself totally unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box.

That was a let off, but the Magpies were finally undone when their central defenders erred again eight minutes later.

Taylor failed to get his head to Van Der Sar's long clearance, before Boumsong's immobility allowed the visitors to make a breakthrough. The Frenchman stood and watched as the ball looped in his direction and, after Rooney shrugged him off with indefensible ease, the England international gleefully beat an exposed Given.

As if to prove England's cricketers were not the only ones capable of a late collapse, Boumsong then repeated his error in injury-time. The centre-half stepped over Rooney's right-wing cross and Van Nistelrooy casually converted at the back post.

Result: Newcastle United 0 Manchester United 2.