Drayton turn in ‘worst display of season’

"I had trouble believing what I was seeing – I can't remember us being quite so bad as we were in that second half," said Davies.

"It was our worst performance of the season by far and some aspects of it were just not acceptable."

Denied the steadying influence of injured goalkeeper Ash Rawlins, who is out for six weeks with a broken wrist and the unexplained, unexpected absence of talisman central defender Paul McMullen, Town did well in the first half.

Former Shrewsbury goalkeeper Mason Springthorpe stepped in for Rawlins but the defence in front of him clearly missed McMullen, who was on the end of sharp criticism from Davies.

He added: "I spoke to him Friday evening and he told me he was looking forward to the game - but on Saturday he simply was not there.

"I fully understand he has his own business to run and that can sometimes make things difficult for him but this time he's let down himself and his team as well as me."

Despite their defensive frailties, Town fought back twice to equalise in a pretty close first half.

Both goals were scored by young Harvey Howell, converting Simon Gregory's 20th-minute corner and then getting on the end of Charlie Knowles' cross 15 minutes later.

As a result, Drayton were still very much in the hunt after conceding a third a few minutes before the interval.

But the appearance of Newcastle's players in warm clean shirts for the second half while Drayton headed out looking bedraggled in the same soaked strip foretold the troubles ahead.

While Newcastle raised their game, Drayton's heads began to drop and they finished fortunate not to have conceded more than just an additional three, to Rod Orlando-Young on 64 minutes, Chris Smith on 77 and Matthew Lowe on 85.

Smith had also scored that important third goal just before half-time, adding to earlier Newcastle strikes by Kyle Stubbs (18) and James Steele (27).