How bad is two outta three? A Long away run comes to an end.

Well, thank God for that. Finally, finally, our tired boys can return to London after jet-setting round southern Spain, the Midlands, and, er, the North-East.

First of all, read my last article: forget Sevilla. About as meaningless a game as a meaningful game can be.

But the last three fixtures warrant attention; three fixtures on the road, which have given us 4 out of 9 points.

The best came first, and it was no surprise given the line up. Hleb and Flamini gave us impetus and creativity and we saw the best forty-five minutes of our season (except the goal) during the first half at Villa Park. The second half, where we doggedly held on to get the points, was also impressive, albeit in a grittier, backs to the wall, style. An excellent three points, all in all.

But exit Hleb; exit Flamini. And on to St James.

Tyneside has rarely, aside from Dennis's lovely flick, been a great hunting ground for us in recent years, and even Adebayor's superb goal failed to give us maximum points. This was possibly due to us being unable to muster any sort of decisive attacking movement for most of the game after our early bang. If anything, we were probably lucky to escape with a point.

Finally, today, one of the worst league performances we've seen for a while - definitely the worst we've seen this season. The back four weren't too awful, aside from Kolo's continual tendency to pump futile long-balls up the pitch, but the rest of the team was bloody abysmal.

Adebayor continues to be an enigma. When a player scores twice in three games and still warrants criticism, something has to be amiss, and in Ade's case it was his complete lack of contribution to the wider team effort. The 'isolated up front' excuse only goes so far. If he was winning balls in the air yet has no one to play them to, I'd be more forgiving. But when a player wins nothing in the air, aside from, mysteriously, headers on goal, something is clearly amiss. Despite his goals, questions about his overall game should be asked.

As should they for our other goalscorer, Tomas Rosicky. Despite his goal today, about as meaningless a goal as they come in any case, he contributed little to the team. In the absence of Hleb and Fab, Rosicky should have stepped up and become the team's creative element. That he did not, and has not in the last few games, has surely shown him to be little more than a link man, albeit an effective one, in the Hleb-Fab-Flam midfield.

The rest of the midfield was similarly poor. Eboue should have been sent off in the first half after petulantly slapping an opponent; Gilberto showed why he's fallen so far behind in the pecking order; Diarra, whilst by no means awful, is not creative enough.

Eduardo, surprisingly, was hauled off at half-time. For a 'poacher' he's playing too deep at the moment, and with Adebayor not winning any ball for him, his ostensibly poor performances are unsurprising. I still think he will get better.

Things improved after Theo and Bendtner's introduction, but we were lacklustre, both in commitment and ability, and Boro were well-worth the three points.

So, a blip or the beginning of something worse? We had to, realistically, lose at some point in the league this year, but it's disappointing that we capitulated so meekly. After three games away from home, four points is by no means a disaster. But questions of whether our squad - not our first eleven - is strong enough to win the league should surely be raised after today's surrender.