IN April 1992, Newcastle secured a 1-0 win over Portsmouth that helped ensure they would spend the following season in English football’s second tier. Seventeen years later, and a failure to beat the same opposition will almost certainly lead to an identical fate.

The difference this time, of course, is that relegation to the Championship will be greeted rather differently to survival in the Second Division.

Newcastle are not down yet, but last night’s goalless draw has left Alan Shearer’s side three points adrift of Hull with just four games to play, one of which is away at Liverpool.

If the Magpies are to survive, things will have to be even more dramatic than they were 17 years ago.

Tonight, with a victory all but essential, they displayed many of the failings that have plagued them all season.

They missed chances – most notably when Michael Owen shot weakly at David James midway through the second half – and suffered from a chronic lack of creativity that was exacerbated by a lack of midfield options.

Shearer’s decision to go with three centre-forwards was understandable, but it did not work. Naming a team full of attackers is one thing – making sure they get the ball is quite another.

By playing Owen, Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka, Shearer diluted the quality and quantity of Newcastle’s midfield. With Smith and Damien Duff offering nothing in the way of creativity, the Magpies were forced into a series of hopeful long balls that bypassed the central third.

Far too many failed to find their intended target and, as a result, the home side’s forwards were forced to drop ever deeper in search of possession.

If Owen touched the ball at all in a stultifying opening half-hour that drained much of the pre-match energy from the home crowd, it was only to pick it up from Nicky Butt before giving it straight back to him.

Something had to give, and while a 28th-minute injury to Jose Enrique initially looked costly, it led to the enforced arrival of Danny Guthrie, something that finally added a dose of much-needed enterprise to the hosts’ ranks.

Within 60 seconds, Smith was firing in Newcastle’s first shot of the game, and while Hermann Hreidarsson’s left arm was down by his side when he blocked the midfielder’s effort, other referees might not have viewed the incident with as much indifference as Mike Riley.

Smith’s strike was the first of four long-range efforts in the space of eight minutes.

David James was only called into action once, to divert Duff’s low drive around the post, but the England international might have been more troubled had Viduka not stabbed Guthrie’s drive past the post when it looked to have been heading towards the corner.

Viduka posed a threat whenever he received possession, and while Newcastle rarely played to his ball-retaining strengths, the Australian still offered a physical presence that has been sorely lacking in recent weeks.

His only first-half chance was a tough one – he was forced to stretch backwards to angle a close-range header over the crossbar – but his aerial ability meant Portsmouth’s defenders were always wary of his threat.

Martins’ threat comes from his pace and predatory instincts, but while the former was in evidence yesterday evening, the latter, not for the first time, was sadly lacking.

Habib Beye’s 44th-minute cross invited the Nigerian to challenge Campbell for a header, and while the ball cannoned off the Pompey defender, it could hardly have dropped more invitingly on the edge of the six-yard box.

Martins thrashed at it, his effort flew high over the crossbar, and a golden opportunity had gone to waste. The fear, even at that stage, was that Newcastle would not get a better one.

In fact, they carved out a decent chance within 38 seconds of the restart, but while Owen’s intelligent back-heel left Viduka in a decent position in the penalty area, the striker’s subsequent shot was aimed straight at James’ midriff.

With the importance of gaining a victory obvious, Newcastle’s attacking became increasingly frantic as the second half wore on.

On the one hand it led to openings – Martins looked to have taken Beye’s long ball around James, only for the goalkeeper to make a crucial intervention – but on the other it invited Portsmouth to attack themselves, and hearts were in mouths when Crouch crumpled under the challenge of Coloccini, only for Riley to wave play on.

Hearts were in mouths at the other end on the hour mark, but when James dropped an innocuous cross from Duff, the ball dropped harmlessly between Owen and Viduka. Luck was not on Newcastle’s side, but then the hosts were hardly helping themselves either.

You would have put your house on Owen making the breakthrough when he galloped clear following Viduka’s through ball, but in the manner of a striker who has not scored since January, the skipper stabbed the ball straight at James.

That was bad enough, but things would have been worse had fellow England international Peter Crouch not displayed similar profligacy. Played in by Jermaine Pennant, Crouch prodded a weak shot of his own straight at Steve Harper.

With Richard Hughes directing a header against the base of an upright with seven minutes left, a bad night for the Magpies could have been even worse.