IF this is what almost £50m worth of spending has done for Newcastle United, then Mike Ashley must be wondering why on earth he bothered.

This is still the early stages of Steve McClaren’s attempts to turn the club around, but already there are more questions for him to answer than he would have preferred six games into his reign.

Two points and no draws; at least Daryl Janmaat ended the team’s 464-minute wait for a Premier League goal by finding the net just after the hour against Watford.

That was small consolation for yet another display in 2015 which smacked of a club struggling to shake off the effects of a dreadful season in which relegation would have been a fitting end last May.

Despite a change of head coach and a greater onus placed on investment, the 2-1 defeat to Watford highlighted once again why Newcastle were in such a poor position under John Carver last season. And, in fairness to Carver, even under Alan Pardew for the most part of the previous year.

There have been question marks over whether or not the policy to target promising foreign players works. Regardless, McClaren has what he has to work with and he needs to get results – quickly.

Watford have brought in 15 new signings since promotion from the Championship and yet, despite fears the changes would affect morale, have maintained the sort of team spirit and togetherness Newcastle can only dream of at the moment.

Quique Sanchez Flores, the Watford boss, has his team working as a unit; the yellow shirts defend as one and attack together to cause teams problems. If only Newcastle did the same.

To see Newcastle in disarray at the back at St James’ Park again was always only ever to likely to lead to an away win from the moment Troy Deeney and two-goal Odion Ighalo bullied Fabricio Coloccini and the Newcastle defence in the opening few minutes.

Newcastle were slow out of the blocks, Ighalo could have had a goal inside six minutes after pulling away from his markers as the ball bounced around on the edge of the Newcastle box.

And things didn’t improve. In fact they deteriorated pretty quickly when Ighalo directed a low shot between the legs of Janmaat and inside Tim Krul’s near post after a calamitous sequence of events down the right.

Firstly Jack Colback made a mess of dealing with a long ball, then Chancel Mbemba’s suicide pass got Massadio Haidara in allsorts of trouble; so much so he forgot how to play the ball down the line.

Almen Abdi darted down the line and crossed for Deeney and Etienne Capoue to tee up Ighalo. And the worst possible start from Newcastle was about to get even worse.

After Papiss Cisse, who was replaced at half-time after a poor display in which he could have had a penalty, had wasted a great chance in front of the posts, Watford added a second.

Coloccini, who many feel should have been replaced at the end of last season rather than handed a new deal, was completely embarrassed by Deeney.

The powerful striker created space for himself to turn by brushing off the Argentine and then rolling a pass beyond him for Ighalo to run round Krul to score. Could Coloccini's place be under threat for his poor form?

“Erm ... you lose football matches, individuals are settling in,” said McClaren. “Some players have been magnificent in games and others aren’t playing up to their level, to their unusual standard, so you are always going to get indifference.

“When you lose matches, not everyone is going to play well. It’s a team and not about individuals – and we lost because we conceded two goals. It could have been more. We fought back in the second half and could have got something out of it.”

Had Newcastle got something then that would have been unfair on Watford who completely dominated the first half.

McClaren was right in stating that there were improvements after the restart, when Siem de Jong did bring some slightly greater invention to the team, but they hardly did enough to claim a point.

It said it all that Janmaat, an attack minded right-back, was Newcastle’s most dangerous player again. As well as scoring just after the hour after a clever one-two with Moussa Sissoko, the Dutchman also forced a save out of goalkeeper Heurehlo Gomes.

Ayoze Perez, the Spaniard handed a start ahead of holding midfielder Vurnon Anita, was as frustrated as everyone else, particularly when he felt he could have had a late penalty when he was tripped by Sebastien Prodl.

"It wasn't good enough, I think the second half was a bit better but it's not good enough we have to just stick together,” said Perez.

"Every game we have many crosses, we don't score enough goals, we have everything we have to improve, it's not good enough.

"It's difficult but you know your mates are trying to get you the ball. Sometimes the things don't happen how you want, but we need to stick together and try to improve.”

After all, Newcastle can’t get much worse.