ALAN SHEARER thinks it is a sign of just how bad things are at St James’ Park that Newcastle United might have to rely on Manchester United doing them a favour on Sunday.

Shearer was part of the Magpies team which finished second behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in the Premier League title race for a second successive year in 1997.

A lot has gone on in the 18 years which have followed, but Newcastle’s horrendous form since the turn of the year is worse than it has ever been during the second half of a season.

Newcastle’s failure to win any of their last ten games, losing nine of them, has turned the season into a crisis and put them on the brink of relegation for the second time in six years.

A failure to defeat West Ham United on Sunday afternoon on the final day of the Premier League season will mean Newcastle are banking on Manchester United claiming at least a point at Hull City. Otherwise Steve Bruce’s Tigers could stay up at Newcastle’s expense.

Shearer said: “It’s been desperately disappointing. I am just hoping and praying that they can give one performance on Sunday, which will be enough to keep us in the Premier League.

“It will be a tough week for the players, the staff and for the fans. I am pretty sure they won’t enjoy Sunday.

“But I can’t see how Newcastle will go out and win a game. I can’t see Sunderland getting anything from their two games against Arsenal (tonight) and Chelsea either, so we might have to rely on Manchester United doing us both a favour. That’s how bad it has become when we are relying on Man United doing us a favour!”

Shearer has been desperate to see improvements on the pitch and has regularly knocked the performances of Newcastle’s players during the horrendous slump as a pundit for the BBC’s Match of the Day.

But even he did not see the extent of the problems developing which have put Newcastle on the verge of playing Championship football again, after they won the Football League to return to the Premier League in 2010.

“I don’t think anyone saw it coming, it could not have been anticipated because they had a fantastic start to the season,” said Shearer. “Noone saw this coming. It has just been a huge decline.

“I feel for John Carver, I feel for Steve Bruce and I feel for Dick Advocaat because I have been there before so I know what they are going through. They won’t be sleeping much this week, that’s for sure.

“If you get relegated, you deserve to be relegated. You can be fortunate or unfortunate for three or four games but you can’t be unfortunate for 38 games. If they go down then nobody can have any complaints. The three teams that go down will deserve to go down.”

Shearer was in charge of Newcastle at the end of the ill-fated 2008-09 season when he was asked to step in for the final eight games. Despite his efforts, Shearer could only deliver one win from his spell in charge.

And the 44-year-old had to endure the frustration and sadness of relegation on the final day when a Damien Duff own goal condemned Newcastle to a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa and the drop along with Middlesbrough and West Brom. Hull and Sunderland both survived that day.

“I’m sure they will all be feeling like I did a few years ago,” said Shearer. “The guys won’t be able to sleep much; they won’t be able to enjoy it.

“It’s just a matter of hoping and praying they can give you one last performance. It is going to be difficult because they have not put in any performances for such a long time. You can’t just magic them out of thin air. It’s going to be a tough week but I have everything crossed.”

Shearer was at Close House for the Have a Heart celebrity golf day which raises money for the Children’s Heart Unit Fund at the Freeman Hospital.

He said: “It’s great to come and get involved at these things. It’s very important that the guys who are lucky enough to get paid for doing something we love like football give something back. It’s not a bad price to pay to come to these events, raise money for charity and have a game of golf.”