Newcastle United supporters see things in black and white, so when it emerged shortly before 7pm yesterday that, officially at least, Kevin Keegan was still manager, the hundred or so fans outside St James’ Park began to celebrate with the kind of fervour that greeted their Texaco Cup triumph in 1975.

Notwithstanding the modern penchant for congregating outside football stadiums and performing for the television cameras, which Newcastle’s supporters could claim to have patented, these were extraordinary scenes. One moment they were chanting “sack the board” and the next they claimed to be “walking in a Keegan wonderland”.

In their black-and-white vision, impending disaster had been averted and, courtesy of a statement that would raise more questions than answers upon the most cursory examination, the Geordie Messiah was still — just about — leading his devoted flock.

In the long term, though, Keegan’s position appears untenable, a factor that may have dawned on those supporters once the delirium subsided. Experience says that when a manager and his board have profound differences of opinion on matters of transfer policy, crisis talks can take them only so far and the subsequent truce is usually short-lived. Soon, one suspects, Keegan and Newcastle will part company for good and, after yesterday’s protests, it is clear that Mike Ashley, the owner, will face a serious backlash, having been left in no doubt that the initial effect of his replica shirt-wearing chumminess has worn off.

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Yesterday afternoon there had been talk on various Newcastle websites of a protest against Ashley’s ownership at the next home match, against Hull City on September 13, while callers on radio phone-ins could be heard saying that the owner would be no longer welcome to sit among the supporters, as he likes to do.

The fiasco over Keegan’s future stirred the pot of discontent more than the owner could have imagined, but it brought to the surface a growing dissatisfaction with Ashley’s regime, the transfer window having closed the previous night without the arrival of the “wow signing” that he was alleged to have promised a fortnight earlier when trying to persuade corporate guests to buy executive boxes at St James’ Park.

The appointment of Keegan in January has been described by many as a masterstroke from Ashley, but if that was the case, it was in a PR rather than a football sense. Under Keegan they have taken 21 points from 19 Barclays Premier League matches. Under Sam Allardyce, his maligned predecessor, they won 26 points from 22. Their prospects may look brighter this season, but much of their early-season optimism has been generated by the performances of players such as Fabricio Coloccini and Jonás Gutiérrez, who were taken to Tyneside not by Keegan but by the unpopular Dennis Wise, who goes by the title of executive director (football).

Wise came in for a lot of criticism yesterday, along with Ashley and Derek Llambias, the chairman, all three suffering the modern indignity of having their entries on the Wikipedia website sabotaged. There was particular outrage at the idea that Wise could be installed as Keegan’s replacement.

The fans’ reaction should tell Ashley something about what PR exercise would work if the day comes to announce Keegan’s leaving because, whatever the wild scenes outside St James’ Park yesterday, few observers outside Tyneside will regard this as anything but a stay of execution.

Best of the web: 'That's enough Mike, you've had your fun, we don't want you any more'

Furious Newcastle United fans gathered in cyberspace as well as outside St James' Park to vent their anger on the club's owners when it was reported that Kevin Keegan had left, only for confusion to descend when the club said that he had not been dismissed ...

“At best our board have made themselves look monumentally stupid. That's enough now, Mike. You've had your fun but now you've messed it up. Take the offers from prospective bidders. We don't want you any more.”
NWMags, bbc.co.uk/606

“Now we can get back to complaining about the lack of transfers, right?”
tunyc, thefootballnetwork.net

“What a shambles. If KK goes that will be an absolute disaster. Having said that, I would not blame him if he did. We have one of the smallest squads in the Premiership and have suffered for it over the past years.”
BrianT, forums.icnewcastle.co.uk

“I was never a fan of the return of KK. I thought it was a PR stunt to pacify the fans. I worry that any prospective takers of the ‘poisoned chalice' will be put off by the amount of managers in the last four years.”
barcodedal, bbc.co.uk/606

“If your loyalty to NUFC is dependent on who wears the manager's coat, parks in the owner's parking space, sits in the board or even wears the shirt, then it's the people you love and not the club.”
mickey_0_saabs, forums.icnewcastle.co.uk

“Dear Mr Ashley, many thanks for ensuring Tottenham are kept off the back pages as the most shambolic club in the Premier League. Many's the time you've bailed us out when things looked bleak. Here's hoping your club does not follow your drinking technique - down in one.”
eyes_on_the_crowd, bbc.co.uk/606