It ended Newcastle United 2 Bournemouth 2.
Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the match.
An exhilarating match at St James’ Park.
Plenty to talk about after this Premier League game.
United going two down, only to show great character and determination to battle back and take a point.
On this occasion it is David Punton:
POSITIVES
Undefeated
You have to take heart from a side that can come back from 0-2 down to snatch a point.
It maintains our unbeaten start to the new season.
Five points from the opening three Premier League games isn’t too bad at all, plus the League Cup win against West Brom.
If Newcastle had drawn at Spurs and then won today we’d still be on five points, so you can argue that we’re about par.
Great goals
Both strikes were well taken, clinical finishes, which was very good to see.
Harvey Barnes in particular has produced a stunner at a key moment, halving our deficit before half time.
Jacob Ramsey has had to be patient. He’s not starting games but he’s come off the bench and taken a very tidy effort into the bottom corner to level the contest late on.
If you’re looking for positives, we are scoring good goals at the moment.
Changes work – again
Jaissle’s predecessor was criticised by some for being allegedly too passive but here was a decisive series of changes.
Steur, Ramsey, and the new boy, Fernandez-Pardo, all played their part in nudging the game back towards us.
Photo by The Mag
NEGATIVES
Bournemouth hex
What is it with us and Bournemouth?
In league games they always, without fail, play well up here.
We’ve not beaten them in a Premier League game at St James Park since late 2019, when they had Eddie Howe and we had a certain Steve Bruce in charge.
Yet again today, they came out the blocks well.
By contrast, we failed to pick up where we left off at Spurs, and had a really poor opening 30 minutes.
Distribution
It was a pretty successful summer transfer window, in the end.
We started as a selling club but ended it significantly strengthening our midfield and attack.
However, we really do perhaps need a new centre half.
What we saw against Bournemouth was some sloppy defending. The distribution from Botman and Thiaw gave the visitors every encouragement they needed.
It’s a shame, as the clean sheet at Spurs was encouraging.
Ref justice
The man in the middle was Rob Jones from Liverpool.
Everyone seemed to agree that Mr Jones was woeful. Many felt it was up there with one of the worst refereeing displays we’ve ever seen at SJP in recent years.
He was absolutely abysmal.
In a week where we had the fall out over Mike Dean’s comment, now this display underlines just how poor the standard is at the moment.
Jones was all about himself. He took pleasure in cautioning our manager. He gave the away side pretty much everything.
I’m not convinced he’s up to the task of refereeing at this level.