LAST time Newcastle United went into the final game of the season with relegation a possibility, they went down – and Ryan Taylor, who was there on that day, hopes the Magpies can get the job done this time.

It was in 2009 that Newcastle, along with Hull City, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, all stood a chance of being relegated to the Championship, where a Damian Duff own goal at Aston Villa condemned Alan Shearer’s team to the drop, while Hull and Sunderland both survived.

This weekend it is a similar picture. Newcastle, Hull City and Sunderland have to battle it out. John Carver’s side need to win to guarantee safety, while Sunderland can achieve their goal if they get a point from their game in hand at Arsenal or their final game of the season away to Chelsea on Sunday.

Hull, meanwhile, need to win at home to Manchester United, with Steve Bruce yet to achieve victory over his old employers.

Newcastle, then, have, on paper at least, the most straightforward task of all. Beat West Ham and Premier League safety is guaranteed.

Taylor hopes Newcastle can take their lessons from history and get over the line at home to Sam Allardyce’s Hammers.

“The good thing for us is that we’re at home,” said Taylor, who joined Newcastle from Wigan Athletic during the relegation season in 2008-9. “I remember watching the game at Villa Park, I was on the bench that day, and we really lacked a lot of things that day.

“We’ve got to make sure that that doesn’t happen again. We can’t do what we did then, we’ve got to put things right and just have a buzz around the stadium next week. Regardless of what has gone on in the past, we’ve got to try and lift everyone this week, including the fans, to help us get over the line.

“We need a lot of characters. People need to know that what’s gone in the past – forget it. We can only go against what we have in front of us. It’s one game, against West Ham, and that’s the end of the line.”

Defeat at Queens Park Rangers continued Newcastle’s abject form away from St James’ Park, and Taylor feels that he and his teammates’ have been left shell-shocked by the recent run of defeats.

“You look back now, nine defeats out of ten. I don’t care who you are, it does shatter your confidence,” said Taylor, who saw Newcastle take the lead through Emmanuel Riviere only to see the game turned on its head after the interval courtesy of goals from Matt Phillips and Leroy Fer. “That one goal, I thought ‘here we go, come on’, we’re going to get another and I thought it was going to be our day, but we just didn’t have a great second half.”

Carver has borne the brunt of the blame for Newcastle’s downfall, but Taylor thinks the players should take responsibility for the current situation.

When asked whether Carver lacked the requisite experience for a relegation fight, Taylor answered: “John’s been around the game for a lot of time. It’s not that he doesn’t have the experience. Yes, it’s a big job, but it’s down to the players.

“We were unlucky to have those injuries but we still had a lot of quality in the squad and we just haven’t done it. It’s down to us as a squad to put it right in the last game of the season to stay up and then build on that, make sure it never happens again.

“Everything’s riding on [this week] for the club. We’ll have chats this week and I’m sure John will be putting his message across that if you don’t want to be under that much pressure, come and see me, but that’s the type of guy he is.

“I’m sure the lads will respond. We had a half-decent result last week when we stopped those losses, we really thought we could build on it.”