MUST do better.

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy likened his team’s defending to schoolboy stuff after this surprise setback and it wasn’t difficult to see why.

“The report on our defending read ‘tried hard, could do better’,” he lamented.

“If that happened on a Sunday morning when you were watching your kids, you wouldn’t be happy about it.”

It wasn’t that they defended like schoolboys, but collectively seemed like worried infants on their first day post-nursery.

That the normally more passive Shola Ameobi acted like the playground bully to leave both centre-halves battered and bruised merely emphasised the point.

And with Kevin Nolan showing all the nous of the classroom ‘irritant’ — you know, the one who flicks the ears of the kid next to him only for the teacher to turn around and punish the victim while he turns the other cheek — Wolves were taught another lesson in the harsh realities of Premier League life.

For weeks now they have earned top marks for the quality of their work and looking as if they would end the term out of the bottom set.

But Saturday was one of those days that had ‘see me’ from the teacher written all over it in red ink.

Wolves have to rediscover the ‘gold star’ form they showed against Manchester United, Blackpool, Tottenham and Villa — and quickly because more of what we saw on Saturday will result in expulsion.

Things conspired against them, of course. Thirty seconds before Newcastle’s second goal just before half-time, Kevin Nolan could have been sent off for his cynical foul on clean-through Adam Hammill 40 yards out rather than booked.

In ‘old money’, Peter Lovenkrands would have been yards offside before stroking home Newcastle’s third goal five minutes after the break.

And the game would have been a lot tighter had Steven Fletcher’s free header gone a few inches to the right to make it 3-2 rather than scraping the post.

But the cold, harsh conclusion was that, for whatever reason, Wolves were largely off the pace for almost an hour until Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s excellently-worked consolation and deserved to trail, even if the final scoreline flattered Newcastle.

In a first-half performance that ranked as their worst since the Liverpool defeat on January 22 and compared to their nadir at Blackburn on December 5, Wolves started sluggishly and nervously and were a pale shadow of the side which had done so well recently.

They weren’t quick enough to the ball, couldn’t keep possession and were sloppy in defence.

Yes, they missed Kevin Doyle, but that wasn’t the reason Wolves lost: In the industrious Fletcher – a 30th-minute replacement for the ineffective Nenad Milijas – they found a clear man of the match and perfect foil for Ebanks-Blake, should McCarthy persist with the 4-4-2 he quickly switched to when it became clear the tried and trusted 4-5-1 wasn’t working.

Unfortunately, Fletcher and Ebanks-Blake – Wolves’ two best players – were effectively pushing water uphill because of the chaos unravelling behind them.

Nolan is as streetwise as they come but he isn’t the most mobile of customers – yet that didn’t seem to be the case as Milijas watched him jog some 40 yards before Richard Stearman and Kevin Foley continued the generosity to allow him to run the ball home for the opener after Ameobi beat Christophe Berra to Danny Simpson’s hoisted punt midway.

Stearman and George Elokobi have been two of Wolves’ most reliable performers of late. But both looked edgy at St James’ Park and Elokobi was beaten by Ameobi to Lovenkrands’ cross to head home the second goal which Wayne Hennessey got two hands to but couldn’t stop.

That seemed like ‘game over’ given the unconvincing nature of Wolves’ performance.

Indeed, if any side was going to score at the start of the second half, it was Newcastle. Joey Barton’s shot was blocked by Elokobi when he seemed certain to score, then Lovenkrands hit the post after rounding Hennessey with the defence at sixes and sevens.

Eventually, Lovenkrands found it all too easy to roll home the third after Fabricio Coloccini beat Elokobi to leave Barton outnumbering Wolves on the left for a simple cross.

Typically, Wolves greeted adversity by staring it in the face and a quality, flowing move started by Fletcher and weaved together by Jamie O’Hara and Matt Jarvis saw the latter’s cross poked home by Ebanks-Blake.

But although Ebanks-Blake’s twisting header was nodded off the line by James Perch Wolves were well beaten, the wind having long blown out of their revival by the time Jonas Gutierrez punished a retreating and under-manned back-line to curl home the fourth.

All is not lost, of course.

Wolves now have games against Everton and Fulham at Molineux where they have shown their best form, although they are punctuated by another frustrating fortnight’s break.

But providing they do their homework and pay attention, they can still end the term with better marks than their peers.

Match analysis by Tim Nash