Newcastle United 2-2 Southampton

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Match Summary...

We may only be three league games into the season, but this game fell quite heavily into the 'must win', or at least the 'must not lose' category as a poor start to the season left us languishing at the foot of the fledgling PL table with zero points accrued and propped up by only perennial top flight strugglers Norwich and newly recognised no-hopers, Arsenal.

However, if the players were told that this was a game in which we should go for the jugular - after all, we were playing against a team who had lost their last NINE away PL games IN A ROW - then it was certainly not evident from a hapless first half display from NUFC. The passing was atrocious, the chances created non-existent and only wasteful finishing from the visitors prevented The Saints from going in at the break with a healthy lead. Indeed, Moussa Djenepo alone - who was the villain of the piece at St Mary's a couple of seasons ago when he saw red in a NUFC victory, wasted enough chances on his own in the opening 45 minutes to have won the game twice over.

Callum Wilson had an excellent header from a Longstaff corner well saved shortly before the break, he was very unfortunate not to score. However, had that gone in, and somehow NUFC had been ahead at half time, then it could have been seen as one of the most fortuitous leads in PL history - Newcastle were simply awful and somehow, went unpunished.

The second half could not have gotten worse than the first, and fortunately, it didn't. In fact, it was a marked improvement from the men in black and white as a half time rollocking seemed to have some sort of impact on the players. Longstaff was strong in the tackle in the middle, Wilson was holding the ball up well and the effervescent Saint Maximin was always looking to cause issues on the break.

Whilst the second half was undoubtedly better from a black and white perspective, it was still a long way from 'good'. However, the first excellently created piece of play from the lads resulted in the opening goal. Starting with a firm but fair challenge on half way by Longstaff, NUFC broke well through Wilson and Saint Maximin, when the ball was recycled back out of the opponents 18 yard box in a rare display of Newcastle showing that they CAN actually keep possession occasionally, a superb lofted ball from Schar saw Murphy head back across goal and our No 9 expertly convert with a diving header from all of 5 yards out. A lead that we scarcely deserved, but an extremely well crafted and executed goal nonetheless.

Southampton could consider themselves very unlucky to fall behind but their heads did not drop. In fact, with 75 mins on the clock, excellent wing play from Redmond set up Elyounoussi to bundle home with some random part of his anatomy at the far post, after his inital effort was well saved by Woodman. Parity, and the least our opponents deserved in truth.

With the game essentially meandering towards a draw, and 90 mins on the clock, Newcastle produced their second good move of the game, again with Schar as the catalyst in starting a good counter attack through Saint Maximin and Joelinton, which saw fellow substitute Ryan Fraser have the chance to be the hero; his well placed shot from 12 yards was cleared off the line by Ward-Prowse, only to fall at the feet of ASM where he made no mistake in lashing home the rebound. Cue sheer delight in the stands as SJP errupted. Get in!

I hope I have made it clear thus far that this was a very poor performance on the whole from our lads. However, when you take the lead in a game, at home, in the 91st minute, regardless of what has gone before it, you should expect to hold on and get the three points, but alas, this is Newcastle United and it is simply never that easy, is it? In the 90 seconds that followed the restart after ASM's goal, Newcastle gave the ball away cheaply on THREE separate occasions, Schar, Longstaff and Ritchie the guilty parties. It was extremely poor game management which allowed an inch perfect throughball to set Adam Armstrong through on goal. Lascelles made what looked like, on first viewing, an excellent goal saving tackle, but of course VAR intervened yet again (giving our opponents a penalty for an unprecedented third league game in a row!) and decided that Lascelles had clipped Armstrong as he went to shoot. Probably the right call on reflection but still a very, very hard pill to swallow given the fact we were now in the 96th minute.

James Ward-Prowse made no mistake from the spot and gained his side a share of the spoils with essentailly the last kick of the game. A draw which felt very much like a loss given the circumstances but in all honestly, a point was the least our visitors deserved.

Player Scores...

Woodman 6.8 : Not at fault for either goal and was actually very unlucky that his first save didn't drop to a Newcastle player for Southampton's first and he also went the right way for the penalty, only the superb pace and accuracy of the kick beat him. His distribution, however, especially his kicking, leaves a lot to be desired, very poor.

Ritchie 5.5 : Targetted by the visitors, understandably given his display vs West Ham. Given a tough time by the impressive Livramento but held his own eventually. Offered nothing in an attacking sense.

Schar 5.5 : Played some 'Shelvey-like' passes and set the wheels in motion for both goals. Erratic defensicely however, ball watching on occasion and also making poor passing choices - although he was not alone in this. Booked for a stupid and needless challenge.

Lascelles 5.8 : In my opinion, our best defender on the day, a decent display ruined in part eith the last minute penalty conceeded. No doubt he will still have his critics but he had a LOT of defending to do here and he did it well for the mosst part.

Fernandez 5.5 : Another average at best display from the Argentine. Some big headers won but was given the runaround by Djenepo as he simply couldn't cope with his pace.

Murphy 5.8 : I say it every week but he is not a defender! Had a decent effort from a freekick and tried to help out going forward, but his crossing was mixed at best. Lovely little headed assist for Wilson's goal. He is becoming a mainstay in this team, albeit in a position that I'm still unconvinced about.

Longstaff 5.5 : Some excellent tackles, some poorly attempted ones. Some lovely crisp passing, some lazy and error strewn ones. A mixed bag for Sean.

Willock 5.5 : Never really got going. Gave the ball away more than we are used to seeing from the lad but never stopped running and tracked his opponents well. Was unable to get forward as much as he would have liked due to how much defending he was asked to do.

Almiron 5.8 : Not a CM but being asked to do a job there by Bruce. For my money, he was NUFC's best player in the first half as he was the only one regularly gaining and keeping possession. Faded in the second half though and simply cannot influence a game in the way he is capable of when he is forced to play such a deep role.

Saint Maximin 7.2 : NUFC's #MOTM Topped an impressive display with what should have been the winner. Passed the ball much better than in recent games as he played with his head up. Deserved his goal for all his hard work leading the line in our counter attacks. Always looked the most likely to make something happen - not that that is saying much.

Wilson 7.0 : Another good center forward's display from our main man. Took his goal superbly and worked tirelessly with only scraps to feed off for the most part. Unlucky not to score with an excellent header in the first half too. Withdrawn after an hour with a thigh issue. We need to pray this is just a slight problem and that he will be back before NUFC kick a ball in anger again because he is simply irreplaceable in this squad.

SUBS:

Joelinton 6.0 : Did okay. Held the ball up on occasion and gave the impressive Salisu the slip to set up Fraser. He's no Callum Wilson but that's not his fault. He's definitely had worse games.

Fraser 6.0 : Only given 10mins to make an impact, but he did, getting into a good position to take the shot which led to our second goal. Could well retain the role of 'super sub' in the coming weeks.

Final Thoughts...

This was not a good performance from Newcastle, yet somehow we were mere seconds from gaining a much needed three points. We are simply a counter attacking team at the moment and nothing else, and whist ASM and Wilson look more than capable of scoring enough goals to see us succeed, it is our performances at the other end of the pitch that deeply concerns me, as well as being practically non-existent in midfield.

Yes, VAR played a part yet again and it feels like our luck is out at the moment, however, you cannot concede 8 goals in three matches and expect to succeed at any level, let alone the top flight.

Our back line is in dire need of some freshening up IMO but it seems increasingly unlikely to happen with the window coming to a close very soon and Bruce all but confirming it will be loan deals or nothing in terms of incomings. If rumours of Diakhaby from Valencia arriving are to be believed then he would be a more than welcome addition, but I am not holding my breath.

I always like to end on a positive - we scored two good goals, we got our first point of the season and ASM's goal caused the most noise I have heard inside SJP in a long, long time. International break now and a chance to forget how much our team can depress us for a couple of weeks, befrore Cristiano Ronaldo gets the chance to rip us a new one on his second Manchester United debut... joy.

Still, could be worse, could be Arsenal!

HTL.