Apologies for a lack of blogging in recent weeks. I've been seconded on a project, of which you will maybe hear more soon.

During my absence, another area has been looking neglected, forlorn and lost. That's football on England's north-east coast. I spent the weekend watching the fortunes of Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Sunderland and Hull City. The best that I can say of any of them is that Hull gave it a go. It was not nearly enough because they are severely lacking in quality. A nervy Aston Villa may have suffered some heart tremors towards the end but Hull would not have scored in a month of Sundays.

Further up the coast from East Yorkshire, a spineless performance from Sunderland followed a spineless performance from Newcastle followed a spineless performance from Middlesbrough. Everton were able to allay any fears following Phil Jagielka's injury by strolling to a 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light past a team barely capable of making a tackle. Sunderland were clueless.

Middlesbrough meanwhile, were taken apart by a Manchester United side playing with a confidence that drained from Boro as soon as Ryan Giggs scored the opener.

Newcastle's defeat at Liverpool has been somewhat overtaken by events, with Joey Barton's latest foible brushing over the hopelessness of a 3-0 defeat that could quite easily have been 8-0. Again, the first goal was key. Newcastle's response was to concede another from a corner that any defence worth its salt would have dealt with. Alan Shearer looked angry, as well he might. But there have to be questions raised about the coaching his players are receiving if they are conceding goals as easily as that.

When Roy Keane quit Sunderland, many felt his team selection had betrayed the onset of panic, with change after change after change reflecting poorly on his state of mind. Keane has denied this yet there is a comparison to be made with Shearer. Iain Dowie, his running mate, has a reputation for fastidious coaching methods and the various formations Newcastle have employed in just 450 minutes of football betray a lack of defined method.

Worse still is Shearer's inability to coax a goal from three strikers in Obafemi Martin, Mark Viduka and Michael Owen. The one thing you would expect him to know something about is scoring goals. He liked scoring them after all. Yet only Andy Carroll, with a Dowie-esque use of his neck muscles, has yet scored under the pair's tutelage.

So, not scoring and conceding easy goals. Hardly a recipe for safety from relegation, yet all four share these characteristics. Sunderland may just have about enough points yet Ricky Sbragia should not be considering getting his lawn cut into the shape of the Sunderland club crest. Brought in as a stop-gap after Keane's exit, he is looking like a good coach out of his depth in the managerial game.

Shearer and Southgate meanwhile are both former England captains. Southgate's promise as a manager has ebbed away this season, after what looked like a solid start. It seems likely he will keep his job, with Steve Gibson repeating the loyalty shown towards Bryan Robson, another England captain of yore, a decade ago. By contrast, Shearer's future is unsure, with several different strands to its destiny.

Will he return to the Match of the Day sofa? Not exactly a clamour from the viewing public for his return. Considering the confusion of his selections and the lack of inspiration shown by many of his players, it would seem rich for him to revert to the role of chummy critic. Should he keep Newcastle up then will he take his leave, having varnished the "Messiah" status he still possesses on Tyneside? Or will he take the job full-time? With Mike Ashley now down several hundred million it seems unlikely he will be granted a warchest to improve a side that looks a good bet for relegation next season even if it survives the chop this time.

Or does he accept the challenge of leading the "Geordie Nation" out of the darkening skies of the Championship. A glance at the three clubs relegated from that division is enough to induce paranoia in Magpie minds. Charlton, Norwich and Southampton have all travelled to St James' Park to play league matches in the last five years. Manchester City and Sheffield Wednesday have both been down there, with Wednesday happy these days to be back in the Championship. And then there's Leeds, the doomsday scenario. Would Shearer be the man to take on the fight as a club slowly pulls itself apart?

For one of Middlesbrough and Newcastle it seems that only one team can save them now; Phil Brown's Hull City. Hull's dreamland of 26 points before Christmas has turned to the kind of reverie suffered after a heavy weekend on the sauce; fits and starts before waking up in the cold reality of a relegation battle.

Brown's media omnipresence has irked some, just as it did when pal Sam Allardyce was doing the same at the beginning of this decade. Come rain, shine or vital six-pointer with a relegation rival, the tandoori-tanned Brown is in front of the camera, enjoying the limelight. Meanwhile, his team have shown a lack of belief to match their dearth of quality, even fighting with each other at half-time at Aston Villa.

In adopting a Boxing Day PR exercise at Manchester City of holding his half-time teamtalk on the field, Brown cut his season into "before and after". Before then, Hull were everyone's second-favourite team. Now, should they get relegated, Brown will be cast as the manager whose ego got the better of him as his "man of the people" act backfired. That latter image has been augmented by his post-match row with Arsenal over the Cesc Fabregas spitting row, which Brown himself admitted last week had probably been too public for his or anyone's own good. Does that note of contrition denote a lessening of his own sense of security in his own job?

Two from four will go, barring a West Brom miracle. Relegation will be a disaster yet even those who survive do so with serious questions still to be answered.