NEWCASTLE UNITED’S New Year got off to the worst possible start when they lost four players to injury during an uninspiring 3-0 defeat to Leicester City at St James’ Park.

The Foxes controlled the game and had just gone in to a two-goal lead with six minutes remaining of the first half when Jetro Willems and Javier Manquillo were forced off.

Stand-in skipper Jonjo Shelvey never made it out for the second half either so head coach Steve Bruce had already used his three substitutes when Fabian Schar hobbled off with a hamstring injury early in the second half.

The Magpies, who have now lost three games in a row to ruin a fine spell before that, battled away with ten men for the remainder of the game but couldn’t find any way back as second-placed Leicester went through the motions.

Ayoze Perez, who left Tyneside in a £30m deal in the summer, was gifted the first goal on 36 minutes and James Maddison capitalised on a second Florian Lejeune error to add the killer second less than three minutes later.

The only blessing was that Newcastle didn’t concede a third until substitute Hamza Choudhury – booed for his horror tackle on Matt Ritchie in August – hammered in from 20 yards with four minutes remaining, so it wasn’t quite as bad as the 5-0 thumping 5-0 at the King Power Stadium in September.

Bruce brought in Yoshinori Muto for the first time since that drubbing at the King Power. His reasoning was that Newcastle needed more energy, having lost the vibrancy the injured Allan Saint-Maximim had been giving the team.

The move didn’t have the desired effect. Not just because of the Japan international’s display – of which he ran around a lot without being effective on the pitch - but because of some ridiculous decision making on the ball by the team in general.

Leicester had already commanded more than 70 per cent of the possession before taking the lead with nine minutes remaining of the first half. Up to that point Newcastle created a few openings without seriously testing goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

Overall the more regular sight was of an animated Bruce frustrated in his technical area, where he was particularly annoyed with the number of long, aimless balls forward. That became a theme because of the lack of options the man on the ball had in front of him.

The nearest Newcastle came to scoring was when Joelinton, again looking short of confidence when it mattered, was played in behind the visiting defence by Shelvey. Turkish centre-back Caglar Soyuncu did just enough to prevent the £40m man from getting a clean shot away.

Joelinton lacked the conviction required to beat Schmeichel, who was able to comfortably gather a header from the Brazilian after an initial effort did not have enough on it to beat the keeper. From that moment on it became a question of how long it would be until Leicester scored.

Jonny Evans had a couple of headers in quick succession saved by Martin Dubravka in the opening moments, while VAR correctly deemed no penalty when Maddison hit the deck under a challenge from Jetro Willems. Not even video technology could help Lejeune out with the break approaching.

The French defender stupidly decided to try to find Schar with a pass across his own area, seemingly unaware that Perez was in close attendance. The Spaniard controlled and finished inside the far corner before then celebrating by sticking his fingers in his ears near the Newcastle fans booing him.

Things soon got worse for Newcastle and for Lejeune. The defender, playing his fourth game in 11 days over the festive period having only recently returned from a long lay-off, had barely got his head round his error when he made a second crucial mistake.

This time his pass down the line went to Youri Tielemans, whose touch set Perez free. The pair linked before Maddison took over and curled a brilliant finish inside Dubravka’s top left corner.

If Bruce had intentions to take Lejeune off then those were dashed. Wing-backs Willems and Manquillo both went off before the half-time whistle, and then Shelvey did not return from the dressing room for the second half.

With all substitutes used, Schar dropped to the ground holding his hamstring. After briefly returning to action he had to leave Newcastle to play with ten men for the final 40 minutes when they already trailed by two goals.

Newcastle showed fight after that, but Dubravka was alert to prevent a third from flying in when he denied Kelechi Iheanacho and then Perez twice from the rebound after a counter-attack, while Bruce called for a free-kick at the other.

Leicester controlled the ball as if it was a training game from there on in, with Schmeichel a bystander at the Gallowgate End until a brief ball over the top raised hope of a late Almiron chance.

But then Choudhury drilled in the third off the underside of the bar from distance with the minutes running out. This was a New Year’s Day to forget.