They have been climbing the hill to St James’ Park in the centre of Newcastle since the 1880s, even before the merger between Newcastle West End and East End produced Newcastle United in 1892.

Back then “the club allowed butchers to graze their sheep on the pitch to fatten them up before slaughter,” wrote Simon Inglis is his majestic 1983 book The Football Grounds of Great Britain.

More than 130 years on fans still beat the same path to a place known as the cathedral on the hill and it is a stadium weathered by history and memories.

It holds 52,000 and on the good days it shakes with noise and fever. It is authentic, real, one of the best grounds in England to watch football. But those good days have become increasingly spaced out. Lambs and slaughter are words not used too often any more.

This season Newcastle have won only twice at St James’ in the Premier League. The black-and-whites have lost eight times and so Newcastle possess the second-worst home record in the division, which is why they are third-bottom of it.

Relegation – which would be for the second time in four seasons – is a distinct possibility. Lose today, when fourth-bottom Cardiff City are the visitors, and some will change that to probability.

Struggling teams generally need home form to prop them up but for Newcastle, home is where the hurt is. Away from Tyneside, manager Rafa Benitez has been able to organize his underinvested squad to chip away 11 points. Newcastle have drawn at grounds such as Goodison Park and won at Huddersfield and Burnley.

Benitez is good at this, stretching his resources across a pitch, frustrating the hosts, then breaking away. Given those resources, the Spaniard has few options. But it is when Newcastle return to St James’ that other shortages arise.

The squad lacks creative talent – they have seven goals in 11 home games. 
On four occasions this season, hard-won points gained away have been followed by a loss at St James’. It sucks at momentum, drags at positivity, Newcastle keep losing energy.

This is visible and audible on matchdays. Considering painful late losses such as against Wolves, the level of patience displayed at St James’ by a supposedly demanding fanbase has been notable. There has been no animosity shown towards Benitez.

But some of that patience is slipping into apathy and some of it may be about to fray. If Newcastle do not attack Cardiff with intent, if not gusto, then the beginnings of annoyance with Benitez’s tactical conservatism, which have been there, will surely spill over.

Benitez’s response will be, unquestionably, to shrug and point to a squad where Jonjo Shelvey is the most creative player. Shelvey is injured; he will miss the Cardiff game.

To the most commonly voiced anxiety, that Benitez will not allow his team to play expansively and attack freely, his reply – as used at the club training ground again yesterday – is: “We were really open against West Ham and got beat.”

It’s a neat answer, and true – “We try to attack and score at home and away. But sometimes you are exposed at the back, like [against] West Ham.”
Benitez then returned to his key word: “Balance”.

It is understandable from a coach’s perspective – “Some people don’t understand that balance is not defensive. When you are attacking, you have to keep the balance. You can sustain the attack. When you cannot do that, you are exposed.”

But balance is not a cry to stir a crowd and it leaves open the issue as to whether the idea of St James’ Park as a vivid strength of the club has been lost.

Its reputation as “a difficult place to go”, where the fans are close and passionate is hard to justify when the ground is silent after 15 minutes, neither roused by the team, nor angry at the opposite.

And on those quiet days, the eyes drift around St James’ to the wallpaper. 
It is, of course, the red-and-blue signage of Sports Direct.

As Rangers supporters know, Mike Ashley understands how to promote and exploit a brand and while it is still impossible to say definitively that Ashley bought Newcastle United in 2007 to thrust Sports Direct into the limelight, it has been – for him – the beneficial side effect.

In 2011, he even changed the name to Sports Direct Arena. Today he says he is keen to sell but cannot find a buyer at his price. Outside his shop on Northumberland Street and outside the ground, supporter protests have raised awareness of a regime that has lurched from decision to decision and lacked strategy from day one.

St James’ Park still looms above the city, still has that potential to roar, but few confuse it with a fortress.