NEWCASTLE United manager Glenn Roeder brought the curtain down on his 15-month tenure at St James' Park last night when he resigned.

Roeder insisted he was the right man to turn around United's fortunes after Saturday's dismal 2-0 home defeat to Blackburn but last night he took the decision to quit.

A formal announcement is expected to be made this morning

Chairman Freddy Shepherd was understood to be leaving a decision on Roeder's future until the end of the season.

But several key members of the United squad made the chairman aware that Roeder had lost the dressing room and a crisis meeting was hastily arranged yesterday afternoon.

Shepherd, after a brief meeting of his board of directors, then summoned Roeder to St James' Park and the manager promptly resigned from his post with immediate effect.

Shepherd, who has also dismissed suggestions that former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson could be heading for Tyneside, will now start the process of looking for the sixth manager of his reign and the fifth he will have appointed.

While no decision has been made as to who will replace the former West Ham boss it is expected Sam Allardyce will be unveiled as the club's new manager prior to Newcastle's trip to Watford at the weekend.

There was no comment from Roeder or the club last night.

When the 51-year-old was asked about his future and the lack of support he had received from his chairman following Saturday's 2-0 defeat, he said: "In all the time I've worked with the chairman it has always been his style not to say anything.

"All last year there were 20 or 25 managers that were going to be appointed and yet for a period of time I knew it was me while all the speculation was going on.

"I've got to know him over the last year and it does not affect my thinking to know how he is thinking himself. I've had a few meetings with him about next year and there's others arranged next week."

Hundreds of fans gathered noisily around the outside of the Milburn Stand's players' entrance after Saturday's game, to voice their displeasure at yet another insipid display in yet another season of under-achievement.

The all-too-familiar refrains of 'sack the board' and 'we want Shepherd out' were joined by a new chorus of 'taxi for Roeder'.

It's not the first time the club's supporters have turned on their chairman.

But it is the first time the fans have turned on their manager, who said: "I can understand 100 per cent where the fans are coming from. I can understand their frustration."

The demonstration wasn't as ugly as the scenes witnessed in the aftermath of the club's miserable defeat to Sheffield United last year, but intent was just as venomous.

If that was the main course then the appetiser was served up when the players remained on the pitch immediately after the final whistle as they showed their appreciation to the club's supporters.

While the response was largely negative there was genuine appreciation for some players.

But the absence of Stephen Carr and Titus Bramble did not go unnoticed.

Roeder physically stopped Carr from running down the tunnel after the final whistle but he shrugged off his manager's pleas and headed straight for the changing room.

"Titus Bramble picked up a calf injury and he wasn't in a position to come out and Stephen Carr had to go straight down the tunnel to get some ice to put on a thigh muscle after a pull," insisted Roeder.

"I think it was important the players walked around the pitch, even though the reaction, understandably, wasn't very good. It would have been bad not to show our appreciation to the fans who always turn up in their thousands and deserve to have had better results.

"It's easy to take the applause when you're winning. For me personally it would have been a real weakness in character if you could not walk around the pitch and show your appreciation.

"They wouldn't have enjoyed the reaction and there were one or two who did not want to do it but I pushed them back on."

When it was pointed out that Emre had managed to hobble on to the pitch with a big plaster cast on his left ankle, Roeder said: "All people are different.

"I suppose Stephen could have gone in and got an ice bag on his thigh or hamstring and come back out. But I'm not going to criticise him any more than that. He said he had to get ice."