the Championship.

With just five more matches to play, Newcastle are almost at the point of no return.

Darren Bent’s 24th-minute winner condemned the Magpies to their 15th reverse of a thoroughly dispiriting season.

Make it 16 or 17 in the weeks to come, and the club’s Premier League status will surely disappear.

Nineteenth-placed Newcastle are now four points adrift of safety and, while home matches against Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Fulham offer an opportunity to scramble out of the bottom three, there is no room for error following yesterday’s defeat.

In truth, even a point at Tottenham was always going to represent something of a bonus result despite Newcastle’s fine recent record at White Hart Lane. But having failed to claim that bonus, the relegation trapdoor has opened alarmingly.

And while a resurgent Spurs have now won six of their last eight league games under Harry R e d k n a p p , the most disa p p o i n t i n g thing about yesterday’s result was that it felt like an opportunity missed.

In the final 30 minutes, with s u b s t i t u t e s Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka offering an attacking threat that had been absent throughout the opening hour, Newcastle finally played like a side who were fighting for their Premier League lives.

Ultimately, though, it was too little, too late, and while Shearer is confident his players will rise to the challenge in the games that remain, the fear is that the same will eventually be said of the club’s season. That, and that the damage was self-inflicted, a criticism that also applied to yesterday’s game.

Shearer’s refusal to play Martins and Viduka from the start was understandable given the pair’s lack of first-team football in recent weeks, but his decision to field an unorthodox 3-4-1-2 formation was much harder to fathom.

Crucially, it also proved pivotal to Newcastle losing the game. Having fielded a threeman defence at Stoke last weekend, Shearer opted to follow suit at Spurs, with Jonas Gutierrez named in a free role behind Michael Owen and Andy Carroll.

Suffice to say the experiment was anything but a success.

While Newcastle’s numerical advantage in central midfield helped keep things tight in the central areas, too many of the visiting side’s players appeared uncertain about the tasks they were meant to be performing.

Damien Duff’s discomfort at left wing-back was obvious – Gutierrez’s desire to pull wide at every opportunity exacerbated the situation – and the Magpies’ three centre-halves struggled to form a cohesive unit in the face of some bright Tottenham attacking.

Shearer acknowledged as much when he switched to a flat back four in the 35th minute, but by then it was already too late. By the time N e w c a s t l e changed their defensive shape, Spurs had already scored what proved to be a winner.

The warning signs were evident as early as the second minute, when an out-of-position Sebastien Bassong appeared to haul down Bent on the edge of the area, and disorganisation was the name of the game again soon after when a short corner caused chaos in the Magpies’ box.

So it was hardly a surprise when the hosts swept the length of the field to claim a 24th-minute lead.

Heurelho Gomes found Benoit Assou- Ekotto with a quick throw, and the full-back quickly moved the ball on to Luca Modric.

Bassong cut out Modric’s through ball to Robbie Keane, only for the ball to fall to the unmarked Bent.

His first shot was saved by Steve Harper, but with Newcastle’s defenders unable to recover enough ground, the England international calmly guided the rebound into a gaping net.

From one goal to the other in the space of less than six seconds.

Like a knife through butter – only with butter that was only too willing to melt away.

Shearer’s decision to name three central defenders at Stoke was understandable given the Potters’ aerial bombardment, but here is seemed like an unnecessary cause of confusion.

It was hardly coincidental that Newcastle’s players immediately looked more comfortable when the experiment was abandoned shortly before halftime.

They initially remained as uncreative as ever, however, with their sole first-half tactic revolving around pumping long balls towards Andy Carroll and hoping that Michael Owen would pick up the knockdowns.

As has been the case on countless occasions this season, he didn’t.

Kevin Nolan fired Newcastle’s only first-half shot straight at Gomes shortly before Spurs scored, and the visitors would have fallen even further behind had Bent not directed a free header over the crossbar on the stroke of half-time.

The interval brought yet another defensive reshuffle – Alan Smith replaced the injured Steven Taylor, forcing Duff to return to full-back – but the flow of the game did not change until Martins and Viduka were introduced on the hour mark.

Suddenly, with three centreforwards on the field – four if you count Smith – Newcastle actually looked like getting back into the game.

Viduka and Martins fashioned Newcastle’s best chance of the match within 60 seconds of their arrival, with the former’s back-heel teeing up the latter for a shot that flew narrowly over the crossbar, and the final 30 minutes saw the visitors gradually increase the pressure on the Tottenham goal.

Martins fired straight at Gomes after swivelling in the box and appeared to have a decent penalty shout turned down following a tackle from Jonathan Woodgate, but while his inventiveness is not in question, his lack of composure continues to undermine much that is good about his game.

Presented with a golden opportunity to claim a point two minutes from time, the Nigerian controlled the ball on his chest and blazed wastefully over the crossbar when only eight yards from goal.

True, he was under pressure, but his desperate slash at the ball was still alarming to see.

The pressure is only going to increase between now and the end of the season, and Martins, along with the rest of his Newcastle team-mates, is going to have to be strong enough to handle what is thrown at him.

On the evidence of yesterday’s game, it would take a brave man to claim that Newcastle are adequately equipped for the fight.