Kevin Nolan has warned Newcastle United are doomed if the Magpies' 'ghosts' do not start to show some fight following an embarrassing 3-0 defeat against Brighton.
Newcastle had the chance to leapfrog the Seagulls in the table and move five points clear of the relegation zone with a win at the Amex.
Steve Bruce's side were given an added incentive to get something from the game after 18th-placed Fulham suffered a bruising defeat against Leeds 24 hours previously.
However, Newcastle were shocking on the night - mustering just one feeble attempt on target - and the black-and-whites made relegation rivals Brighton look like world-beaters as Leonard Trossard, Danny Welbeck and Neal Maupay put the visitors to the sword.
Bruce has now overseen two wins since December 16 and it is hard to see how the 60-year-old will get Newcastle out of this given the difficult fixtures that lie in wait.
Nolan went down with Newcastle in 2009 and the club's former captain was troubled by what he saw from the passive visitors in Sussex.
“Very disappointing," he told Premier League Productions. "When you think about what was riding on the game, their third win in a calendar year, you’ve got to go there and make yourself known.
"Newcastle have been ghosts tonight. That wasn’t good enough. If they continue to play like that, there is only one outcome come the end of the season.
“I think there will be one man who is really happy tonight and that will be Scott Parker looking at that because he will be thinking, 'They've given us an opportunity now to drag Newcastle into what's going to be a fight'.
"Not too many of them I saw tonight were fighting and that has got to change very quickly.”
