CONSISTENCY is proving so alien to Newcastle United this season that supporters must wonder if they are allergic to it. The team have won as many league matches as they have lost since August, adding a Jekyll and Hyde element to the club’s traditional pantomime status and ensuring that crisis is merely held at bay. They are frustrating, baffling and infuriating.

Physical against Arsenal and potent away to West Ham United, Newcastle surrendered meekly at Anfield on Boxing Day, eroding the fragile goodwill of fans before tonight’s fixture at home to Charlton Athletic. They are tenth in the table, only nine points shy of Liverpool, in third place, and six short of Wigan Athletic, who are sixth, yet apparently incapable of a decent run of form.

There have been reasons for this — injuries to key players have hampered them, their squad is too skinny to withstand significant damage and was assembled too late to prevent an unsettling start — but the upshot is lingering and corrosive instability. Having failed to negotiate the Intertoto Cup last summer, qualifying for European football is a pre- requisite that, at present, appears beyond them.

Scott Parker’s return from suspension against his former club is balanced by Lee Bowyer’s ban and the absence of Steven Taylor, Newcastle’s most-improved player, for up to 12 weeks. It is symptomatic of his side’s chequered fortunes that Taylor, the England Under-21 centre half, lasted only 28 minutes of his comeback from a dislocated shoulder at Liverpool and now requires surgery.

Taylor’s departure and the Kop’s lambasting of Titus Bramble, his replacement, were held against Graeme Souness, but the manager last night responded in bullish fashion. Taylor, he said, “was given the all-clear to play by a specialist over a week ago,” while Bramble was not dropped but rested. “He has a pain-killing injection in his groin before every game,” Souness said. “People should know he is soldiering on for the good of the team.”

Pressure is seldom distant for Newcastle, yet the sniping is wearing. “I don’t really want to give these people credibility, because they just heap pressure on the players at every opportunity,” Souness said in response to criticism of the 2-0 defeat two days ago.

“It epitomises the kneejerk reaction to things, which is unique on Tyneside. I was warned about it when I came here and I just have to accept it.”

His contention that Newcastle “haven’t turned into a bad team overnight” is reasonable, but the season is now approaching its midway point and hints at them being a good team have been fleeting.