IT WAS FULL AGAIN ON SATURDAY. St James’ Park, Newcastle, the nation’s biggest waiting room. Waiting, as always, for a trophy; waiting to be inspired; on this occasion, waiting to see if this would be the last match in charge for Graeme Souness. Despite the headlines, the board faces a choice, not a crisis.

The options: upheaval if Souness goes or uninspired competence if he stays. Time for the fans to lower their expectations to fit the circumstances? Some hope. In Newcastle, they will always hope. And so the often average, sometimes good side that Souness has built is not enough to save his job.

This was the fixture last season in which Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer fought each other, when their frustration overflowed into misguided action. On Saturday the atmosphere was exasperated yet inert. The mood of the fans is as grey as the stadium’s seats.

“You are only two games away from real pressure. I knew that when I came here,” Souness, the manager, said. “It’s been like this here for a long time and it will be like this for a long time to come. I know the players are with me.” For all his defiance, the talk already is of who could replace him. The difficulty in finding a suitable successor may be all that preserves his position. Yet Newcastle United had won three of their previous five league matches. Last season they reached the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup and the semi-finals of the FA Cup. But it is the nearly 40 years without a significant trophy that matters.

“I only want to talk about the game,” Souness said. Which was a shame, particularly because it was poor, a tale of caution played out ponderously in midfield. Legislation passes through Parliament quicker than Aston Villa pass through their opponents. They construct attacks as tentatively as learner drivers.

The exception was their goal, cancelling out Alan Shearer’s 32nd-minute penalty. Lee Hendrie skipped down the left and shrewdly set up Gavin McCann, who drove his shot low past Shay Given from the edge of the area with 15 minutes left. Then came an 88th-minute penalty for Villa when Titus Bramble fouled Milan Baros. Gareth Barry, who twice scored from the spot in the corresponding fixture last season, put the ball over the bar. That saved the draw for the home side, but it may not save Souness’s job.

This was a face-off between the Premiership’s two most endangered species, but David O’Leary is more secure than Souness, despite the Carling Cup defeat by Doncaster Rovers last week. “I didn’t feel under any more pressure coming in today,” O’Leary said. “You are under pressure every week to perform because the buck stops with the manager.”

Souness said he was happy with his players’ efforts and Michael Owen should return for the game against Arsenal next weekend, even if Dyer remains a doubt. “I don’t think the squad feels like we are muddling through,” Given said.

A new manager may struggle to coax better results out of the squad, but at least momentum would be generated. This is a club where melodrama is an instinct, where commotion comes naturally. Those who go to St James’ Park and sit and wait do not want to sit still.