AS the sleek private jet slipped down the runway and into the stormy night skies over Tyneside, the normally cool French passenger on board must have been a perplexed man indeed. Jean Tigana, coach of Monaco had just observed Newcastle United stumble ineptly to defeat by lowly Southampton and he may well have scratched his head the whole way back to Monte Carlo.

Tigana might not even have stopped by the time he returns to Newcastle with his Monaco players at lunchtime today. The question bothering Tigana, and a lot of other folk for some time now, is whatever happened to the likely lads - Newcastle United? Whatever happened to the panache, the passion, the noise - the goals?

Newcastle have had some downbeat games since around November - when they lost the Premiership leadership - but this was so curiously lethargic, so strangely subdued, that even the most faithful of fans must be questioning the wisdom of their commitment.

As for Tigana, he must be thinking it is all a giant bluff and that it will be the real Newcastle standing up tomorrow night. However, if this is his thinking, he is wrong.

The funereal atmosphere may change due to the lustre of the European occasion, but Newcastle will still be without other major influences, notably Alan Shearer, Faustino Asprilla (suspended) and probably, Les Ferdinand. The latter lasted only until the interval on Saturday, not re-emerging after it due to a "tweaked hamstring", Kenny Dalglish revealed, "and" added the Newcastle manager ominously, "if it was bad enough for him to come off at half time, then it does not look promising for Tuesday".

Ferdinand's non-appearance meant that the rejigged forward line of David Ginola, Asprilla and Keith Gillespie had a combined total of one goal in Newcastle's last 29 league games. Robert Lee, with four goals, was their top scorer on the park.

United's attack though, will not have been the sole department whose inability will have struck Tigana. There was also a stunning lack of imagination in midfield and the usual measure of statuesque incompetence at the back.

This ultimately did Newcastle 10 minutes after the break when the most routine of diagonal long balls form the gigantic Ulrich Van Gobbel sailed over the Newcastle defence to Matthew Le Tissier who buried a sumptuous volley with casual ease.

It was only Le Tissier's second significant involvement of the afternoon - the first had been a pass that released Egil Ostenstad who should have given Southampton an earlier lead. He then departed 20 minutes later.

The magnitude of the victory said Graeme Souness, "will be gauged at the end of the season. We should believe in ourselves after that, we're still in charge of our own destiny".

Other results at the bottom went well for Southampton and they face Everton at the Dell on Wednesday knowing that another win could conceivably lift them out of the relegation zone.

If they defend as they did here, in numbers and with a bravery typified by Alan Neilson against his old club, then they could pull away. The trouble is that Southampton have not defended like this often enough and for some inexplicable reason may not again.

Souness does not need Jean Tigana to tell him how puzzling football can be.