The defender strolled into the stadium wearing a tuxedo.
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However, Southampton couldn’t maintain their lead until the break, with Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse deflecting an effort into the back of the net to make it all square at half-time.
This match is the longest trip in England’s top flight, with 281 miles separating the centre circles at St. Mary’s and St James’ Park.
There were more positives than negatives. It may take a few more games before everything settles for Newcastle.
Moussa Sissoko, playing on the right side of midfield, was a powerful runner. It is imperative therefore that issues within the team are addressed early on by McClaren so that safety is secured well before the last games.
Newcastle United has set the tone for what they want to do this season.
McClaren had opted to pair Mbemba with captain Fabricio Coloccini at the back, despite the latter having missed all of the club’s warm-up programme with an Achilles problem. It seems like only yesterday and not almost 3 months ago that Newcastle United Supporters (including myself) were on the edge of their seats nervously watching whether they would be relegated with their last day of the season match against West Ham United.
But he was on the spot again to equalise, bundling a deflected Massadio Haidara cross over the line from a yard.
Long’s headed strike was remarkably similar to that from Pelle in the first half.
Cisse departed with 15 minutes remaining and the new £13m arrival Aleksandar Mitrovic came on for his Newcastle debut and was immediately yellow carded for a bad foul on Matt Targett.
At the opposite end, Cedric Soares went close to marking his Premier League bow with a goal but the full-back’s thumping volley was superbly denied by Tim Krul.
Then three minutes into the second-half, Newcastle found the kind of extra gear that was so absent from their play last season. “The only really decent game was (Borussia) Monchengladbach last week, and even that was a nice, gentle pace. We have to prepare ourselves very well because [Newcastle is] a totally different game from the two against Vitesse”.
“Once we sat down together to iron things out, I knew straight away his heart was with the Club and the new contract was agreed very quickly”.
“For 75 minutes, the team were excellent”. That created us chances before and we will learn from that.
“Our performance wants to be much better with the ball and we need to play much better with it”.
Newcastle, though, were a little fortunate to hold on at the end as Sadio Mane twice got clear inside the area, only to fire one shot wide after another had been blocked by Jack Colback. “Most definitely”.
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The goal gave Newcastle some semblance of control although their momentum was hit when Vurnon Anita was stretchered off just past the hour-mark after falling awkwardly following a fair challenge from Mane.
