**As things stand, Newcastle United currently occupies 12th spot in the Premier League table, which, just five years ago, would have been seen as an achievement, but now feels like a disaster.**
Under Mike Ashley, a 12th-placed finish in the Premier League would have felt like an achievement, but since the takeover, finishing in the bottom half of the table is unthinkable. Eddie Howe even managed to get an 11th-place finish out of the team that looked certain to be relegated when he took over from Steve Bruce.
Seven games remain this season. We don’t need to panic about a bottom-half finish just yet, but we are in serious danger of missing out on any form of European football if [the run-in](https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2026/03/21/newcastle-set-for-eight-cup-finals-starting-with-sunderland-tomorrow/) does not go well.
If Newcastle are to climb back into the top half of the table and beyond, they’re going to have to learn to do something they’ve failed to do so many times this season: hold on to a lead.
No team has lost more points from winning positions than Newcastle this season, who have let a shocking 22 points slip from their grasp.
Had Newcastle held on to those 22 points, they’d be sitting in second place in the League right now. Of course, it’s never that simple in football, and changing all of those results would affect the table in many other ways, but it shows just how bad we’ve been at navigating leads this season, as we saw once again on Sunday.
It’s not just the number of times we’ve let leads slip that’s the issue, though; it’s the manner in which we’ve done it that is the most concerning.
So many of those missing 22 points will have been lost after taking a one-goal lead and then playing out the rest of the game like the job is done. It has been an irritating trait of ours all season. It’s as if Eddie Howe sends his players out there with a message of ‘next goals wins’.
Equally annoying is how many times those leads have been erased so late in the game. We get it, we’ve played more games than anyone else, but why can’t we stay awake in second-half stoppage time?
Late goals and late penalties have been a theme this season, too. It shows just how ill-equipped we were to compete in the Champions League again, even though we made six acquisitions in the summer.
We’re not sure what the magic number is of players in the squad that will help Newcastle to avoid this level of fatigue, but it feels like we’re a good way off it right now.
Newcastle’s hierarchy is hoping for change next season, and this strange reaction to holding a lead needs to be one of the first things that they need to look at.