NEWCASTLE supporters are being urged to vote with their feet with a mass walkout in the final home game of the season.
There have been calls for fed-up fans to register their protest by heading for the exits after 60 minutes of Saturday's visit by relegation-threatened Cardiff.
Manager Alan Pardew faces increasing calls for his head after presiding over the club's worst top-flight sequence of results for 27 years - six consecutive defeats.
Mike Ashley's running of the club has also come in for flak from the stands, with supporters hopeful the word-of-mouth plans will lead to thousands of empty seats for the last half-hour in a clear message of discontent to Newcastle's multi-millionaire owner.
Influential fans website nufc.com said: "The post-match chatter after the defeat at Arsenal centred on the attempts to gain support for a mass walkout after 60 minutes of Saturday's visit of Cardiff. Given the team's current rate of implosion, even sticking around for an hour might be beyond the call of duty."
The St James' Park rollercoaster has been in full working order this season - on the up in the first half as they stood fifth in December; since then, a break-neck journey south.
The sale of Yohan Cabaye, Pardew unwisely butting in where he wasn't wanted at the KC Stadium, and a worst run of results in the top flight for more than a quarter-of-a century. It's been a litany of incompetence, and now add to that six consecutive defeats and counting with just a single goal scored in an abject sequence.
No one knows what's going on. It's shambolic
Rob Lee, the former Toon midfielder, is not alone in labelling the situation a shambles, insisting "selling club" Newcastle are going backwards under Pardew following the latest defeat, a wholly predictable 3-0 humbling at Arsenal, as the folly of failing to replace Cabaye following the midfielder's £20m January move to Paris St Germain is laid bare.
Their aim of a top-10 finish is under threat, but their problems run much deeper than that. Newcastle are second bottom of the form table since the turn of the year, having scored just 10 goals in 2014 with talk of nothing but a grim battle for survival next season unless action is taken swiftly.
There is also a growing feeling among supporters that not just Pardew but the players are in denial about the malaise.
Dan Gosling risked their wrath after warning relegation-threatened Cardiff that St James's Park is never an easy place to come. The stats would suggest otherwise. Pardew's side have lost eight of their last 10 games at home.
Yet Ashley is set to stick with his manager and back him in the transfer market, with plans already in place for a much-needed recruitment drive this summer.
Previous planned protests this season have fallen flat, but support is growing for a mass walk-out during this weekend, when many among a 50,000 crowd are expected to vote with their feet to leave swathes of empty seats.
More ominously for Pardew given the site's influential nature among the club's followers, nufc.com added: "The lack of unity is glaringly evident and mirrors the fractured relationship between manager and fans. There's a clear need for a figurehead at this club to restore some self-respect, organisation and belief. That man is not Alan Pardew."
Former England international Lee, who made almost 400 Newcastle appearances in a decade at the club from 1992, understands their anger.
"If you can see your club progressing, fine, but the fans can see no progress whatsoever," he said. "They can see the club going backwards. We're not in danger of relegation, but we're not really in any danger of anything.
"Alan Pardew has got the club comfortably in mid-table, but our performances from the start of this year have been dreadful - relegation material."
Lee fears the worst if the slump is not addressed, and added: "No one knows what's going on. It's shambolic. The way it's going it'll be a relegation battle next season if they don't start bringing in players.
"Newcastle fans now have got to accept they're a selling club. In the 90s when I was playing and we had big names and we could compete with everybody but from that point, we've fallen a long way."
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