The Magpies ran out at St James' Park on Saturday to face Blackpool having not lost there since Fulham won 1-0 in May last year.

But that run of 26 league and cup games was brought to a shuddering halt by Ian Holloway's men, who arrived with a plan and executed it perfectly to leave with a 2-0 victory.

Some of the stunned home supporters among a crowd of 49,597 voiced their displeasure on the final whistle as last season's Coca-Cola Championship winners trudged off the pitch having succumbed to the side which had finished five places and 32 points behind them.

However, just as he did not allow himself to be carried away by the 6-0 rout of Aston Villa three weeks earlier, Harper is refusing to panic in the wake of an unexpected defeat.

He said: "Over the years, there has been too much of a rollercoaster.

"After Aston Villa, we were probably going to finish in the top eight. Now people will be mentioning the 'R' word.

"But we won't be doing that. We know we will win games that we are not expected to and in this league, you can lose games that you are expected to win.

"We have got a tough game next week and we will battle on."

That game will come at Everton on Saturday, by which point manager Chris Hughton and his players will have had to address the failings which cost them so dearly yesterday.

It was not that Newcastle played badly - Hughton insisted afterwards that they had created more than enough chances to have won the game, and in that respect, he was not wrong.

However, when he sits down to analyse the game in detail, what will concern him is that his team was repeatedly cut open by a Blackpool midfield superbly orchestrated by Charlie Adam, while a front three of DJ Campbell, Brett Ormerod and Luke Varney caused too many problems for his defence.

In addition, Newcastle were at times one-dimensional going forward and with the visitors' defence largely dealing admirably with the threat of in-form striker Andy Carroll, the men around him could not find the finishes to make the pressure count.

That said, had it not been for a superb individual display by keeper Matt Gilks, the Seasiders might have left the north-east with just a point to show for their efforts, or even empty-handed, and that would have been harsh.

After seeing Harper pull off a fine double save to deny first Campbell and then Ormerod, Gilks was relieved to see Mike Williamson's 25th-minute header come back off the post.

However, his afternoon began in earnest seven minutes later when he went one-on-one with Kevin Nolan and came out on top to establish something of a theme for the afternoon.

The Tangerines went ahead in the final minute of the half when, after Alan Smith had clipped Varney's heels inside the box, Charlie Adam sent Harper the wrong way from the penalty spot.

The keeper said: "I had watched a couple of Charlie Adam's penalties before the game and he went the other way, so that's the reason I went that way."

Stung by the reverse, Newcastle launched a major fightback after the break, but Gilks, with the help of some stout defence, simply refused to be beaten.

He made one-handed saves from Joey Barton and substitute Peter Lovenkrands and with just two minutes remaining, blocked Carroll's goal-bound effort with his foot as wave after wave of black and white attacks were repelled.

Newcastle's misery was complete when, with just seconds remaining, Adam fed Campbell and he beat Harper with a perfectly-placed shot into the far corner.

Harper said: "Their goalkeeper had one of those special days that can happen every now and again, but it is a disappointed dressing room in there.

"Goals changes games in the Premier League and when a team comes here, you don't want to give them anything to hang on to and that's what we did.

"We gave them a penalty and they managed to hang on to that, and they caught us with a sucker punch at the end when we had to go chasing the game, so it was a disappointing day."