So that is that then. The end of Newcastle's Uefa Cup campaign and the end of yet another trophy dream. The end of the illusion, the end of the false hope, the end of the foolish belief that a squad which has been desperately short in numbers and quality could succeed where so many before them had failed.
Football is full of dreamers and romantics, those who believe in the impossible and unlikely, but football is ultimately a game won by the realists and the pragmatics and, to put it short and to put it bluntly, Newcastle simply aren't good enough to win anything.
Most fans always feared as much and the sensible ones will probably have known the season was going to be another anti-climax when the transfer window shut for the first time back in September and chairman Freddie Shepherd and manager Glenn Roeder had failed to sign the striker, centre back and left back the squad so desperately needed.
When the transfer window opened and closed again with only the loan signing of Oguchi Onyewu, a defender who was cup-tied in the Uefa Cup, it merely highlighted the weaknesses and added to the sense of frustration and disillusionment which had bubbled under the surface all season.
Perhaps we can write this season off as a rebuilding one, a step in the right direction after the disaster of Graeme Souness, but has the side moved on? Are things better? It doesn't feel like it this morning and it is up to Roeder and his highly-paid players to prove otherwise, starting at Charlton.
Roeder was visibly uncomfortable in his post match press conference and once again slipped into his "I don't use injuries as an excuse" line. The problem is Glenn, you say you don't use them as an excuse, but you have brought them up in every single press conference since the Autumn so by raising the issue they are, by proxy, surely being used as an excuse?
Yes the injuries have been terrible at times this season and any side in the country would feel the loss of Michael Owen for an entire campaign but my point has always been, if the squad had been strengthened in the right areas in the summer, the injuries would not have been felt so acutely.
And another thing as this rant gets into full flow, how many first choice players were injured when Newcastle collapsed and folded like a rusty deck chair in Holland?
Owen, Shola Ameobi, Stephen Carr and Celestine Babayaro. Four players, of which one always seems to be injured (Babayaro) and another who has rarely played this season either (Carr). The other two, we have known would be missing since the autumn.
What made the surrender in Alkmaar so unbearable and infuriating was that it came when Roeder was able to play something approaching his strongest side.
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