A season which started in such hope, with a barnstorming performance at Old Trafford, is 90 minutes from the unthinkable.

From Sunday best against the team which today stands on the brink of a historic quadruple, to what's been dubbed Survival Sunday.

How Newcastle United got from A to B, a remarkable journey, even by the club's own standards is for another day. Mistakes have been made, that's not in doubt. Many saw this coming, yet those in charge didn't.

But this isn't a time for recriminations, and there will be many, but that's for another day.

Tomorrow, Alan Shearer's players, despite what has gone before, can emerge as heroes, to be talked about for decades on Tyneside to come with a reverence they scarcely deserve after a dismal season which has seen them win just seven out of 37 league games.

And any single player could be remembered as having saved the club.

Someone whose contribution to the cause, up to now, doesn't stand up to scrutiny could go down in folklore, with everything else all but forgotten.

Could Mark Viduka, who has managed just a handful of appearances this season, pay back his handsome contract several times over by saving the club from the abyss with one crucial, crucial goal? Why not?

Should that same act also condemn Sunderland to the drop, then they would never need to buy a drink, or pay for a meal, in Newcastle again. Ever.

Of course, that same team could be vilified as the worst ever to don the black and white in the Premier League, not deserving of the baby Bentleys that cram the training ground car park and cocoon them from the reality of everyday life for those who pay their mammoth wages.

In football, it's said the dividing line between success and failure is fine, it will be finer still against Aston Villa, a team which was once a poor relation of United.

Ultimately, Newcastle's destiny doesn't rest in their own hands, yet the odds are that Sunderland and Hull City – who are competing with Shearer's side to avoid the final relegation spot – will not both win their respective games against Chelsea and Manchester United.

However, with just two away wins in the league all season, the odds don't favour a United victory either.

Still, Shearer – who will have watched the season opener against Manchester United on TV – will be on the touchline, and there's no one most supporters would rather have leading the troops into battle.

And should he guide the club to victory in its 616th Premier League game, and ensure another season of top-flight football at St James's Park, the achievement will rank alongside anything he achieved as a player.