Steve McClaren's fight to save his job suffered another major blow as crisis-torn Newcastle crashed to a dismal 3-1 home defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday.

McClaren had endured a miserable week featuring reports that he had lost the backing of Newcastle's players, who were expecting the embattled former England coach to be sacked if they lost this weekend.

Angered by that story, Magpies boss McClaren showed signs of cracking under the strain of Newcastle's relegation battle when he unwisely became embroiled in a spat with a journalist during his weekly press conference.

Against that dispiriting backdrop, Newcastle desperately needed an uplifting victory against Bournemouth, but instead they capitulated once again and remain second bottom of the Premier League and one point from safety with 10 games left to save themselves.

Steven Taylor's first half own goal started the collapse and Josh King made it two before Ayoze Perez gave Newcastle hope.

That proved a false dawn as Charlie Daniels' stoppage-time strike condemned Newcastle to a third successive defeat that triggered a torrent of abuse for McClaren and his players from Newcastle's disgruntled fans.

Newcastle had early chances, with Emmanuel Riviere just failing to connect with Moussa Sissoko's early cross and skipper Jonjo Shelvey firing narrowly wide from 20 yards, but once the visitors settled, it was they who set the tempo.

Benik Afobe volleyed over after controlling Adam Smith's cross on his chest, and might have done better after Matt Ritchie's pass had sparked a lightning break.

But the deadlock was broken in the 28th minute when Max Gradel's quick footwork allowed him to feed the ball out to King and his cross was deflected past Rob Elliot by Taylor.

Taylor almost made amends for his own goal on the stroke of half-time when he surged forward and controlled Riviere's cross before his shot was blocked just wide.

Riviere was replaced by Aleksandar Mitrovic at the break, but the visitors might have increased their lead within six minutes of the restart when Elliot got down well to parry Smith's drive.

The Cherries were utterly dominant with their hosts clinging on for dear life, although Mitrovic went close with a curling 61st-minute effort which beat keeper Artur Boruc, but also the far post.

Boruc then had to turn away Daryl Janmaat's stinging 64th-minute drive.

But the game was over with 20 minutes remaining when King ran on to Ritchie's through-ball and lashed a shot past Elliot into the roof of the net.

Perez gave the home side hope when he reduced the deficit with 10 minutes remaining, but Daniels powered a shot past the helpless Elliot to leave McClaren sweating over his future.