That was in the immediate aftermath of MON leaving wasn't it and the carnage that occured.
I still think how on earth that result happened, Newcastle's next two home games that year were losing to Blackpool and Stoke and we still had a decent team back then, Young, Downing and Petrov all in the midfield for that game.
Edit: I believe aswell McDonald would've got the job full time but for that result. Certainly the board seemed to be edging towards that decision before the Newcastle debarcle which changed everything.