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Fabricio Coloccini counted the cost of Newcastle’s manners from heaven and warned: “We’re too nice.”

As yet another Toon awayday slipped into an improbable paradox of nice but grim, the solution was staring them in the face.

They are not ruthless enough in both boxes. The fixture list in February looks prohibitive. They are sleepwalking towards the abyss.

For the second time in a fortnight, Newcastle left Vicarage Road empty-handed because they couldn’t hit a cow’s backside with a shovel and it is no longer a question of them being too good to go down.

They may be too negligent to stay up, and skipper Coloccini admitted: “Maybe we are too nice. It is true we need to win more tackles.

In pictures - Watford 2-1 Newcastle:

"If you look at the 50-50 ­challenges, maybe we are losing more than our opponents and that is not good enough.

“Sometimes, in our team, that can make the difference. We have great footballers when we have the ball, but we need to get the ball and to get it, we need to be winning those tackles.

“It feels like the same story again. We had a lot of chances but we couldn’t score.

“We haven’t been playing that badly, but when we’ve been on top of games, we’ve not taken advantage and that’s something we need to learn quickly.

(Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

“It’s one step forward and one step back. We played well against Manchester United and West Ham, but it is important we start keeping clean sheets.”

Manager Steve McClaren, whose win-ratio at Newcastle remains shocking, talks like a general who has sent in the cavalry – but doesn’t have any horses.

“Sometimes you have to win ugly, like we did at Bournemouth,” he said. “We’re playing well enough to give ourselves a chance in every game but, frustratingly, it’s not happened for us again. We’re saying it too many times.”

Just six goals away from home all season should tell McClaren everything he needs to know. He has a week to sign a striker whose goals will save the Geordie nation from neurological ­meltdown.

(Image: Dan Mullan)

Aleksandar Mitrovic’s link-up play was exemplary, but right now he couldn’t finish a fish supper.

Watford took a huge step towards safety after four consecutive defeats.

Odion Ighalo is back on the goal trail and Craig Cathcart’s first goal of the season proved decisive before Jamaal Lascelles decorated his first Premier League start for Newcastle with a fine header.

Hornets defender Nathan Ake, on loan from Chelsea, can hardly believe he is sitting pretty above his parent club with two-thirds of the season gone.

(Image: Richard Heathcote)

Ake said: “It’s a bit odd being above Chelsea in the table, but it’s a good feeling I am here. I’m sure they will turn things around.”

Watford’s third win over Newcastle in four months sent head coach Quique Sanchez Flores into fist-pumping ­celebrations on the final whistle and he said: “We came from a very bad run and I know how it works in the mentality of the players. They were a little bit down.

“But it is in our hands to enjoy the season, not to suffer it.”