Rafa Benitez admits Newcastle 'need help' in their fight for Premier League survival but it is unlikely to come in the form of a Mike Ashley cash injection

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Newcastle can only hope they find three worse teams in the coming months. Swansea are surely one of them.

But if you cannot beat the bottom club at home, you risk surrendering your destiny to others.

And that is the way it will be for Rafa Benitez and his side between now and May, for when fans leaving St James' Park are celebrating news of a Watford equaliser against Southampton, you know faith in their own men has evaporated.

Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez saw his side frustrated at home by Swansea on Saturday

After a 1-1 draw, Benitez admitted his team 'need help', but extra transfer funds are unlikely

Supporters are behind Benitez, but this is a Championship side fighting for top-flight status. That much was evident from Saturday's team-sheet, consisting entirely of last season's players.

'Carlos Carvalhal told me that before the game…' said Benitez, pointedly. Swansea boss Carvalhal came up against Newcastle with Sheffield Wednesday last term, and beat them twice.

So did the Spaniard expect to arrive in January with the same XI who won promotion? 'No,' he added, again using brevity to emphasise his frustration. 'It tells everybody where we are.'

To be three points clear of the bottom three, then, is perhaps an overachievement. That owes everything to their recent away form - wins at West Ham and Stoke - but they cannot rely on that to continue, especially not as three of the next five on the road are at Manchester City, Liverpool and Spurs. 

It is seven matches without victory at home, a sequence which last occurred in 2009 and ended in relegation. 

Jordan Ayew (left) gave fellow relegation battlers Swansea a 60th-minute lead on Tyneside

‘We have a lot of players giving everything but still, sometimes it is not enough, it is not easy,’ said Benitez, who played down Jonjo Shelvey's show of petulance following his substitution.

Nothing looks easy at this club right now. On the pitch, they are struggling to score goals - Joselu’s second-half equaliser to cancel out Jordan Ayew's opener was their first at home in nearly six hours. Off it they have a manager who has still not been told his January transfer budget and an owner who wants to sell the club but looks to be fighting a losing battle. Mike Ashley has a decision to make.

‘Do we need help?’ considered Benitez. ‘The answer is yes, we do need help.’

It is looking increasingly unlikely, however, that help will arrive in the form of a cash injection from Ashley. To that end, they will be left to rely on the shortcomings of others.

But Joselu equalised eight minutes later to leave Newcastle three points above the drop zone

Swansea are six points worse off and they will not mount an escape act by starting with a rookie striker who has never scored a Premier League goal.

Oliver McBurnie, 21, might well develop into a fine player, but he is not what Swansea need in this situation, and Carvalhal knows it.

‘He is a player for the future,’ said the manager. ‘He is not ready in this moment for the Premier League.

‘I believe he was probably thinking it would be better to go to the Championship and come back more strong. But circumstances give an opportunity to him now.’

Swansea will have to change those circumstances if they are to survive. Newcastle must hope they do not, for they are banking on Saturday’s opponents being one of those three teams who finish beneath them.