text: Somehow, to the backdrop of supporter unrest, protests and a worst-ever start to a Premier League season, Alan Pardew managed to excavate five straight victories from a Newcastle side which ranks as their most uninspiring of recent years. Many fans may be loath to admit as much – others readily do – but without that freakish run manufactured by an embattled Pardew, they would be headed for a second relegation in seven seasons. Remove those five wins and United would have just 20 points – the autumn run, then, has saved them from the fall. Alan Pardew's five-game winning run was crucial to Newcastle's season, who would only be on 20 points . Newcastle's fans protested for the board to sack Pardew as manager and were delighted when he resigned . When Pardew quit for Crystal Palace at the end of December, Newcastle were ninth. They were seven points off fourth and 10 from danger. Today – on the back of six consecutive defeats - they are lucky that seven points still separate them from the bottom three, while the gap to fourth has extended to 29. The 35 points on which they currently reside will probably be enough to renew their top-flight status. Pardew won 26 of those. Three weeks before embarking on that winning stretch, Pardew had appeared on the brink of dismissal. Behind the scenes, owner Mike Ashley was never going to dispense with his manager on the say-so of fan fury. Nonetheless, Pardew cut a resigned and wounded figure following a 1-0 defeat at Stoke which left Newcastle joint bottom with Burnley. Since his departure the players have look uninterested and unhappy playing for the club and John Carver . From the negativity, however, was born a perverse positivity, driven by Pardew’ s determination to repair a reputation so badly stained that his next posting would surely have been outside of the Premier League. Crucially, he kept his players on side – no mean feat given their current levels of disinterest – and so emerged a siege mentality which, on reflection, was to yield a season-saving 15 points. Reputation restored, Pardew’s exit plan was in place. He’d had enough of playing politician, caught at the centre of a toxic relationship between Ashley and the club’s fanbase. The 53-year-old appeared to have hit rock bottom against Stoke but picked up the players for the winning run . Replacement John Carver – like Pardew, the sole public face of the crisis club – is discovering just how poisonous that atmosphere has become. It has now permeated a playing staff which, like the thousands of supporters who boycotted Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at home to Spurs, have failed to turn up for the best part of 2015. Pardew, of course, was not without some serious flaws, and it was he who presided over six straight losses last season. But in his absence the club has begun to unravel. The squad has shown its true colours – a depressing grey which lacks energy, passion and invention. Carver is proving he's not cut out for top-level management, with two wins in the last 14 games . This sad situation, however, is the cause of a hierarchy which has stripped the club of ambition and meaning. With each passing defeat and demonstration, it becomes more apparent that perhaps Pardew was not the problem. In fact, without him, their problems could have been far worse.
target: Newcastle would be on 20 points if Alan Pardew's five wins were removed .
  John Carver has won just two games in 14 since taking over the side .
  Newcastle's players look uninterested and uninspired since he left the club .
  The 53-year-old has made a blistering start in charge of Crystal Palace .
  CLICK HERE for all the latest Newcastle United news .