When the red fuel light on the dashboard starts flashing drivers know they are on borrowed time. It all depends on a car’s make and model but there will be 30, 40, possibly even 50 miles left in the tank. Eddie Howe’s problem is that, unlike a motorist, he cannot steer his increasingly drained squad towards the sanctuary of a nearby filling station.
“We’re missing a big number of players,” says Newcastle’s manager. “You can keep going for a while, but the longer it lasts, the harder it gets. We don’t have options to change players.”
