Stoke City complete late comeback

Newcastle United came agonisingly close to a first away win of the season before goals from Jonathan Walters and Cameron Jerome changed the match at the Britannia Stadium this evening.

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Both sides struggled to create clear-cut opportunities but kept the referee busy in a keenly-contested first half.

Davide Santon, James Perch and Charlie Adam were all booked in the opening 30 minutes of a physical battle.

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Glenn Whelan produced the most exciting moment of the opening period, sending a swerving volley narrowly wide from distance.

Alan Pardew's side struggled to provide service for strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse for much of the first 45 minutes.

Stoke were forced into a change just before the interval when Peter Crouch was replaced by Kenwyne Jones after the striker was caught in the face by Mike Williamson.

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The Magpies made the breakthrough just two minutes after the break when Cisse reacted quickest after Asmir Begovic could only parry a low strike from Ba.

Cisse made no mistake from close range for only his second goal of the season.

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Tony Pulis brought on Michael Kightly and Jerome to try to force a response but Stoke's best effort came with a strike from range by Walters.

Newcastle nearly had a second late on when Cisse forced Begovic to make a strong save after racing onto a loose pass.

Stoke drew level in the closing stages when Walters headed past Tim Krul into an empty net.

A dramatic turnaround was completed two minutes later when Jones headed down into the path of Jerome, who drove home to score the winner five minutes from time.