Newcastle 1-QPR 2: Quick Reaction

Newcastle took the lead but a poor second half coupled with a wonderful strike by QPR's Leroy Fer means it's another loss for John Carver's men and now it all comes down to the final week of the season against West Ham at St. James Park.

A win is now the only result that will assure safety for Newcastle.

Good luck with that.

The match started brightly with Emmanuel Riviere scoring his first goal of the season, but ended the way so many have this season with Newcastle conceding multiple goals in the second half.

The only thing positive that happened for NUFC on this match day was Hull losing to Tottenham as well while Sunderland also failed to secure safety, managing only a scoreless draw at home to Leicester.  With one match remaining, Newcastle have 36 points and are a mere two points ahead of Hull for the drop.  Even a draw would not be enough to save Newcastle if Hull defeat Manchester United next week.

The match began with QPR already relegated, but any belief that the home side would not be up for this game was quickly put to rest.

With both teams going 100 miles per hour, neither team could create anything until a seemingly harmless route-1 kick from Tim Krul to Riviere.  The striker, for his part, put the ball over an advancing Rob Green off of his shin.  The commentator called it a miss-hit, but Riviere and Newcastle do not care. The Frenchman had surpassed the 18-hour mark of being goalless in the Barclays Premier League.  For a forward.

But Newcastle's version of Jozy Altidore had FINALLY broken through with a goal – and it came out of absolutely nothing. In the 23rd minute of a match in which neither team had offered had any threat at all, Newcastle had a glimpse of hope that this may be the day that they would secure survival.

Riviere celebrated by doing a back handspring, a la Obafemi Martins. Hopefully there are many more of those to come.

The goal was huge and this is what the live table looked like after he scored it.

The table looking much kinder for #NUFC at the moment pic.twitter.com/h5lTu6EJpB

— Texas Toon (@Texas_Toon) May 16, 2015

It was also the first away goal by Newcastle since Feb. 11 in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.

No one wearing black and white at Loftus Road cared about that road futility. Even the weekly sing-song against Mike Ashley seemed to lose its steam. Everyone was too happy take time to be mad at the owner for once.

The goal seemed to settle Newcastle done a little and the Magpies nearly added a second after a Daryl Janmaat deflected shot off a corner kick made it to Fabricio Coloccini, whose header would have found the back of the net, if not for a scrambling stop from QPR keeper Alex McCarthy who had been thrust into the action after a 34th minute injury to Rob Green.

What John Carver told the guys at halftime we'll never know, but Newcastle came out on the back foot right at the start of the second half. QPR's Matthew Phillips throughout he had scored in the 46th minute if not for a last-ditch block from Jonas Gutierrez.

Newcastle would not heed the warning signs were there and QPR kept going forward. A counter-attack allowed Charlie Austin to get free down the wing, and the Newcastle United transfer target put in a perfect cross that was headed in by Phillips, who rose higher than Janmaat to score his first home goal in over a year.

Then came what might go down as one of the better strikes of the year, much to the chagrin of Newcastle supporters. Ryan Taylor, who is completely out of position in midfield, lost the ball on a tackle and it came to Fer, who unleashed a 30-yard beauty that left Krul no chance.

Now it was 2-1 QPR in the 60th minute.

Paul Dummett could have equalized minutes later, but blasted his volley from 6 yards out up into the second deck.

Newcastle brought in on Papiss Cisse and Rolando Aarons, but neither troubled Phillips and now the Magpies are well and truly up against it.

We deserve to go down #NUFC

— steve wraith (@stevewraith) May 16, 2015

Steve Wraith of NUFC Toon Talk is right, but I hope Newcastle pull off a miracle save at the death next week.