NEWCASTLE UNITED are set to make an SOS call to Steve McClaren after John Carver conceded the club’s players may have “stopped listening” to him in the wake of Saturday’s calamitous 3-0 defeat at Leicester City.

Carver is adamant he will not be walking away from his position as interim head coach despite a chaotic afternoon at the King Power Stadium that saw him accuse centre-half Mike Williamson of deliberately getting himself sent off as the Magpies slipped to within two points of the relegation zone.

Williamson refuted those accusations in a statement released yesterday, but with Daryl Janmaat also seeing red as Newcastle slumped to a club-record eighth successive defeat, managing director Lee Charnley has been involved in a number of discussions about how best to guide the club to safety in the final three games of the season.

Charnley is understood to have spoken to both Carver and owner, Mike Ashley, yesterday, and there is a growing acceptance that the current situation is untenable. Newcastle’s final three matches pit them against West Brom, QPR and West Ham, and they will almost certainly have to claim at least one victory if they are to avoid a second relegation in the space of six years.

McClaren has long been Newcastle’s preferred choice for a permanent head coach position, and the former Middlesbrough and England boss had been expected to take over at the end of the season.

However, with Derby County having unexpectedly missed out on a place in the play-offs on the final day of the Championship season, the 54-year-old has suddenly become available for the final three games of the current top-flight campaign.

Whether he would be willing to take over at such a delicate stage of the season remains to be seen, and sources close to the North Yorkshireman were last night suggesting that he would demand a series of firm guarantees about what would happen in the event of relegation before he agreed to take over.

There is also the small matter of compensation to address, with Derby set to demand up to £2m before they would agree to release McClaren from his current contract at the Ipro Stadium.

However, the fact the Newcastle hierarchy is discussing its options in such panicked terms underlines the extent to which the threat of relegation has intensified in the last fortnight or so.

Saturday’s humiliation appears to have been the final straw, with Carver’s post-match conduct strongly suggesting that he has lost the respect and trust of the players at his disposal.

His accusation that Williamson had deliberately picked up his second red card of the season was a remarkable one, and the former assistant admits his squad could be ignoring whatever he says.

“If I’m honest, I have to admit there’s a chance they’re just not listening to me,” said Carver. “That might be one factor of many, and you have to consider it. You have to consider it and take it into account.

“But it might be a lot of other things – we might not be good enough, we might not have enough desire to want to defend in the box or score at the other end. There’s lot of factors, but I won’t deny that (the players not listening) could be one of them.”

Having accused Williamson of “taking the easy way out” in his post-match interview with the BBC, Carver repeated his accusations in front of the written press moments later.

On Friday, the head coach met with two of the supporters who abused him during the 3-2 defeat to Swansea, and according to one of the fans’ Twitter feeds, Williamson’s performance levels came in for criticism.

The pair will meet to air their grievances later today, but with Williamson potentially available for the final game of the season against West Ham, Carver insists he would be prepared to select the centre-half again in the future.

“I would consider Mike for the last game of the season because I have to,” he said. “He’s a professional footballer for this football club.”

Williamson refuted Carver’s accusation that he deliberately got himself sent off yesterday, in a statement that was not released through official club channels.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the Newcastle United supporters and my fellow team-mates for getting sent off during yesterday’s game,” he said.

“There was absolutely no intent to hurt Jamie or get sent off, but I recognise that I should have been more composed and measured in my determination to win the ball.”

Carver’s record now stands at 12 defeats from his 16 matches since replacing Alan Pardew, but the 50-year-old is adamant he will not be walking away.

“I’m not at the end of my tether,” he said. “I’m really, really angry – more than you can actually think. It took a long time after the game to calm down a little bit.

“But I’m not at the end of my tether yet, and I’ll keep going and keep fighting. There’s 4,500 people out there, and if it was any one of them standing in my position, they’d fight for it as well. And I’m going to fight for this until the death.”