As the season unfolded the attitude of the fans changed. Initially they tried to lift the team and Dinnis was full of praise after the 0-3 home defeat against West Ham. "The Leazes End in particular were marvellous in the second half trying to keep us going".
But when the scoreline was repeated a week later in the home game against West Brom. the fans turned. They barracked the players throughout the match, chanted "we want football" and jeered them off the pitch (allegedly) reducing some players to tears.
The arrival of McGarry and a couple of better performances got the fans back on the team's side, but when relegation became a mathematical certainty they voted with their feet. The last home game against Norwich attracted only 7,986. It was the lowest attendance for a League match since World War 1.
Not surprisingly the average attendance slumped by more than a quarter to 25,037.
It was apt that the biggest crowd of the season at SJP was for a match in which Newcastle did not play. A crowd of over 42,000 turned up (with many more locked out) to see Blyth Spartans unluckily beaten by Wrexham.
Even this match brought controversy as the Chronicle reported. "Turnstiles had closed even though there were huge gaps in some parts and many fans - especially in areas of the new stand and the Leazes End - could watch the match without even being pushed."
The club responded by explaining that certain section had to be closed because they had reached their capacity and that announcements were made to guide supporters to open turnstiles. Some supporters decided to gain entry by forcing their way through locked doors and the decision was taken to close all turnstiles.
The home game on March 29th against Manchester City was poignant as it marked the end of an era for the ground as The Leazes End was closed to allow it to be demolished as the first stage of the Phase II ground development plan.
For safety reasons the capacity had already been reduced by 5,000 and the decision was taken to start with the covered Leazes instead of the uncovered Gallowgate because the Popular End was in a worse state.
The plan was to replace it with a new stand similar to the East Stand with paddocks to the front and seating behind. The new paddocks were to be ready for the start of the new season; the 5000 capacity seating areas would "not be completed next season" but would instead "be built in sections as and when possible".
With hooliganism rife at the time it was no surprise that the dire performances of the team were also reflected on the terraces. Fighting regularly broke out at the Leazes End during games, notably during the home defeat against West Brom when there was a pitched battle on the terraces.
The UEFA Cup Tie with Bohemians at Dalymount Park had to be stopped for ten minutes as fans fought with each other. Bottles, blocks of wood and cans were used as missiles and the trouble eventually spilled onto the pitch. United keeper Mahoney had to receive treatment after being hit and the windows in the United dressing room were shattered during the break.
Director James Rush was the centre of controversy when it was alleged that he had sent a letter to the Irish club apologising for the behaviour of the Newcastle fans and suggesting it was they who had started the trouble.
The return leg at St. James' was relatively quiet, but a small smoke bomb was launched from the Leazes.
Some supporters decided that a more civilised form of protest was required and The Newcastle United Supporters Association was born with Alex Gibson as Chairman and Malcolm Dix Vice Chairman.
Businessman Dix had attempted to get on the Board on a number of occasions believing that there was a need for a younger more business orientated board. He suggested that "freemasonary" was being used to block him and accused the board of "making Newcastle a laughing stock".
Dix stressed that NUSA were not looking for direct confrontation "Our aims are simply to make United a successful club. It isn't that now and shows no signs of it becoming successful. They simply wanted "the name of Newcastle United spoken with pride once more".
They wanted the club to issue new voting share capital to bring in cash and new blood into the board. Their campaign started with them issuing leaflets to supporters before the home match with Wolves. "The directors have sole authority regarding the transfer of shares and this would seem to have been kept to movement between a select group".
Their premises were officially opened by Fifties stalwart Frank Brennan in January (McGarry having turned down the job as being politically sensitive). Brennan was highly critical of the club and urged the fans to boycott games to bring about change.
Another former player who publicly criticised the club was Macdonald, but his speech at a Sports Council dinner was not well received.
With their usual impeccable timing the club introduced a letters page to the programme to give the fans an "opportunity to air your views". Not surprisingly the state of the club was not reflected in the suspiciously positive tone of the majority of letters that got printed. Only one from Mr. RP Myers really criticised the club and the reply from the editor showed that this was only published to try and turn public opinion against the doubters.