Newcastle's Sam senses storm clouds are lifting

At Wigan, Sam Allardyce's team were so bad that the billionaire who sits with the supporters in his black and white shirt must have been tempted to join in some of the derogatory and unflattering chants.

Newcastle fans demand passion and quality from their players and it has been sadly lacking this season.

Last night no one could question the commitment of players believed to be playing for their manager's future, although Ashley is said to be bemused by speculation that Allardyce will be the next managerial victim in the Barclays Premier League.

With so much already in place for the duration of Allardyce's five-year contract, and further changes afoot, Ashley has every intention of sticking with the manager he inherited from Freddy Shepherd.

Ashley led the rallying call in the dressing room before the game and was there afterwards, having seen Allardyce's players deliver a performance which buried the memory of three successive defeats.

Allardyce said: "It was very nice to see Mike back from his holidays and he was looking very, very well — certainly better than me, anyway.

"Four Premier League teams have gone out to lower league opposition and there was no game harder than this one, but we coped very well and we could have won it at the beginning of the first and second halves."

After Saturday's visit to Old Trafford — Sir Alex Ferguson was present and is still unlikely to be quaking despite the improvement — Newcastle face a replay with feisty Championship outfit Stoke, who narrowly had the better chances.

It needed several fine saves from Shay Given, and two goalline clearances from the outstanding pair of Steven Taylor and Abdoulaye Faye, to keep out Stoke's best chances in a late rally.

Given's best stop was to keep out a deflected shot from Ricardo Fuller which clipped Faye and looked goalbound. He also saved from substitute Jon 'The Beast' Parkin.

Despite those late chances, the visitors could have made life easier for themselves during a bright opening but were denied by the exemplary goalkeeping from Steve Simonsen.

The Stoke man was first to react when Mark Viduka's delightful 25th-minute through ball opened up the home side's defence, nudging the ball away from Michael Owen.

He then kept out Charles N'Zogbia's left-foot shot which skimmed off the sodden surf ace. Damien Duffal so conjured two reasonable openings for Nicky Butt and Viduka.

Alan Smith was culpable when Fuller broke down the left, making a rash sliding tackle and allowing the Stoke striker a clear run at goal. Fortunately for Smith, Faye stepped in to clear.

Two Liam Lawrence corners for Stoke found Leon Cort who was unlucky to place one free header wide midway through the first period.

But Allardyce's men were again to rue their bad luck 10 minutes after the re-start.

An N'Zogbia cross caused chaos and Taylor touched the ball on to the post. With Simonsen off his line, Duff clipped the ball back over his shoulder but Owen was unable to get to the cross.

Until Parkin's introduction, the home side's main threat still came from set-pieces. His first touch created an opening for Fuller who skipped past Given, played the ball back into the path of his new partner Parkin, only for Faye to throw himself at the shot on the line.

Parkin won the ball at the resulting two corners, setting up Danny Pugh whose shot just cleared the bar, before his own effort was blocked on the line by Given.

A similar chance fell to Parkin from Lawrence's next corner but Given again saved. "I'm still convinced I scored," said Parkin. "We won 1-0 didn't we? I have absolutely no idea how one of the them didn't go in. We're a bit disappointed we haven't gone through, the lads were fantastic."

And Stoke appeared to suffer in the 78th minute when a Fuller shot struck Taylor's hand.

Gateshead youngster Andrew Carroll was sent on by Allardyce with three minutes left and he could have won the game with his first touch.

N'Zogbia's cross came to him through Owen's legs. He slid in in front of Ashley and the Newcastle supporters but put his shot against the post and side netting.