Five questions Newcastle have to answer to avoid the drop

1. Who will score the goals needed to keep Newcastle safe?

Since Andy Carroll left Tyneside at the end of the January transfer window, Newcastle have failed to score in three of their seven games. Indeed, take the baffling 4-4 draw with Arsenal out of the equation, and they have managed just four goals in six matches.

Carroll has left a huge gap at the head of the Newcastle attack, and while Leon Best and Peter Lovenkrands have toiled manfully in the last month-and-a-half, neither looks especially comfortable at Premier League level.

Lovenkrands was particularly poor at the weekend, while Best is nursing an injury that could keep him out for up to a month.

That leaves the raw Nile Ranger and an out-of-sorts Shola Ameobi, who has found the back of the net just once since late October.

Failing to replace Carroll on deadline day was always going to be a gamble - increasingly, it looks like a badly-judged move.

2. How can Newcastle get the best out of Kevin Nolan?

It is not just Carroll's goals that have been missed since January 31. The England international was also the figurehead of the Newcastle attack, pulling defenders out of the game and creating spaces for other players to exploit.

Nolan was the chief beneficiary of Carroll's muscular hold-up play, regularly making late surges into the penalty area in order to profit from his knock-downs and flick-ons.

Having scored ten goals in the first five months of the season, the midfielder has only managed one success in the last eight games.

With Alan Pardew generally fielding two centre-forwards in Carroll's absence, Nolan's role in the side has changed. On recent evidence, his effectiveness has decreased accordingly.

3. Where should the Magpies play Joey Barton?

When Newcastle were flying in the early stages of the season, Barton was playing out of his skin as a right midfielder.

His crossing from the flanks set up a series of headed goals, and his set-piece delivery was a key part of the Magpies' attacking arsenal.

The set-pieces are still reasonably effective, but Barton's general game has dipped recently, and with the rest of the side malfunctioning, his ability to influence things from the right flank is compromised.

With Carroll gone, there is no one to profit from his crosses, so might it be better to shuffle him infield and ask him to control the central area?

Cheik Tiote will miss the next two matches after picking up his tenth booking of the season at the weekend - is Barton his ideal replacement?

4. Who should Pardew play at centre half?

Not Sol Campbell on the evidence of Saturday's battering at the Britannia.

Age finally appears to have caught up with the veteran defender, and it is hard to imagine him making too many more appearances in the games that remain.

That leaves Mike Williamson and Fabricio Coloccini as Newcastle's first-choice pairing, but neither has looked particularly comfortable in recent games.

Steven Taylor skippered the reserves as they took on Manchester United yesterday, and the fit-again defender must come into contention ahead of next month's crucial relegation clash with Wolves.

Last weekend's back three experiment will surely be scrapped, but might Taylor replace Williamson a week on Saturday?

5. How can confidence be restored after a run of one win in eight matches?

This is not the relegation season, but with Newcastle having dropped into the bottom half at the weekend, it is hard not to draw parallels.

Two years ago, the Magpies won just one of the 15 matches they played between New Year's Day and May 9.

The fear of defeat effectively became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and while morale is undoubtedly much better this time around, the most alarming thing about Saturday's reverse was the speed of Newcastle's collapse at the start of the second half.

The Wolves home game will be a jittery occasion, with nerves jangling in both the stands and the starting XI.

There is plenty of experience in the current side, with the likes of Coloccini, Nolan, Barton and Steve Harper having seen it all before.

The older heads will be crucial, and Pardew will spend the next two weeks reminding his squad that nine other sides are currently worse off than them.

With home games against Wolves, Birmingham and West Brom still to come, the fixture list should also provide some much-needed reassurance.

Fan's five questions

Yesterday’s guest deputy editor was Paralympic hopeful Lyndon Longhorne. Here, the Newcastle United fan gives the club’s players five tips for the rest of the season

1. Every game they don’t win, they should put that behind them and focus on the next. If they forget about the game they lost this weekend, they can go out fresh and hopefully get something out of the next one.

2. Listen to everything that the manager says at the start of the match, or even during the game. If they do that, they will be focused and work as a team.

3. If they go a goal down, they shouldn’t switch off. One goal is not a disaster – they can always pull it back and go on to win the game.

4. Always stay focused when playing the game. The players all have to believe in themselves and concentrate on the job they are given to do in the game.

5. Keep setting themselves new targets. The league table changes every week, so the team’s targets have to change with it. If they don’t meet their target, there should always be a new one they can aim towards.