Match Analysis: Newcastle United 2-2 Southampton

A late header from Southampton substitute Shane Long denied Steve McClaren victory in his first match in charge of Newcastle United as the teams played out a 2-2 draw.

The Saints took the lead through Graziano Pelle in the 24th minute, but Papiss Cisse restored parity before the interval.

Georginio Wijnaldum put Newcastle in front with a debut goal after the break, but Long rescued a point for Southampton 11 minutes from time.

Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at the action from St James' Park to establish whether the result was fair.

Match statistics

Newcastle Shots: 9 On target: 4 Possession: 56% Corners: 6 Fouls: 9

Southampton Shots: 15 On target: 5 Possession: 44% Corners: 6 Fouls: 12

Was the result fair?

Yes. It was an exciting, end-to-end match in which both sides gave as good as they got and enjoyed spells of attacking possession.

Newcastle looked prone to defensive lapses early on, but grew into the match, while looking deadly on the counter-attack throughout.

Playing their third competitive fixture of the season, Southampton showed no signs of fatigue from their trip to Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa League in midweek.

Newcastle's performance

McClaren can take a lot of positives from his first match in charge of Newcastle, notably their strength going forward on the break with players like Moussa Sissoko and Cisse leading the charge.

There were also strong debuts from Chancel Mbemba and Dutch playmaker Wijnaldum to build on, but there was also room for improvement.

Newcastle have work to do at the back, particularly defending crosses. They had no answer to the aerial strength of Pelle and left goalkeeper Tim Krul exposed on more than one occasion.

Southampton's performance

Similar to Newcastle, Southampton can take mostly positives from their trip to St James' Park.

Their front pairing of Pelle and Jay Rodriguez look like they could be a handful for any defence now that the latter is fit again, while Dusan Tadic and full-back Cedric Soares provided them with plenty of ammunition.

However, the Saints struggled to contain Newcastle's swift breaks at times and will be disappointed to have shipped two goals on the opening day after maintaining a watertight defence last term.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Steven Davis: Both sides had opportunities to win the match, and Southampton midfielder Steven Davis denied Newcastle two of them by producing vital blocks inside the penalty area, thwarting Wijnaldum early in the first half before hacking a Fabricio Coloccini effort off the line. He was also a thorn in Newcastle's side going forward thanks to his crossing ability.

Biggest gaffe

The game's biggest gaffe came right at the death as Sadio Mane found himself clean through on goal with the chance to wrap up the points with the last kick of the ball. He left a fatigued-looking Coloccini for dead and had only Krul to beat - but could only drag his effort wide of the post. It was a moment he won't want to see again.

Referee performance

Craig Pawson let the match flow, but was firm when it counted, handing out yellow cards whenever they were necessary. However, Newcastle fans will certainly feel he was on the lenient side as he denied them two reasonable penalty claims in the first half.

What next?

Newcastle: McClaren's second game in charge of Newcastle is a tough trip to Swansea City, who held champions Chelsea to a 2-2 draw on the opening day.

Southampton: Southampton's first home match of the new season is against Everton next weekend.