At the end no one seemed quite sure how to react. Or even who to blame. The “Bruce out Brigade” assembled on the Gallowgate End appeared to have been pacified by Allan Saint-Maximin’s apparent “winner” for Newcastle only to watch in horror as Southampton’s Adam Armstrong collapsed under Jamaal Lascelles’s last gasp challenge.
James Ward-Prowse’s assured stoppage-time conversion earned Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side a point but left both managers still seeking their first Premier League win of what threatens to be a distinctly awkward campaign for the man in the St James’ Park hot seat.
The first chants of “We want Bruce out” permeated the Tyneside air at the 25 minute mark. When shortly afterwards, Newcastle’s manager bent down to retrieve a loose ball from the technical area, he was booed.
“It was a disappointing afternoon all round,” acknowledged Bruce. “The fans are entitled to their opinions - and I have to accept the first half wasn’t good enough.”
In the first half, Newcastle were extremely poor, forfeiting possession far too easily. It left Southampton dominating almost 70% of possession and comfortably on top without ever really testing Freddie Woodman in the home goal.
Aware Kyle Walker-Peters was overlapping from left-back almost at will and Moussa Djenepo had missed a couple of decent chances following slapdash defending Bruce badly needed Saint-Maximin to sprinkle some counterattacking stardust on proceedings. Happy to oblige, the Frenchman duly accelerated upfield, creating a couple of near misses for Jacob Murphy and Callum Wilson.
Even so, far too much of Newcastle’s first-half football was, at best, two dimensional and worryingly low intensity. Much as it was good to see Fabian Schär try to carry the ball out of the back three, the Swiss defender was horribly prone to losing it and needed to watch his step after collecting a booking for a heavy challenge on Mohamed Elyounoussi.
While Schär looked a particularly weak link, there were too many sub-standard performances across a team constantly appearing to wait to be rescued by Saint-Maximin’s party tricks and Wilson’s finishing.
The latter provoked a dramatic change in the second-half mood music. When Schär atoned for earlier errors by playing a menacing ball across the box, Murphy nodded on and, having lost his marker, Wilson headed beyond Alex McCarthy.
Although Armstrong - sold to Blackburn by Bruce’s predecessor, Rafa Benítez, for £1.7m three years ago but now a £15m Southampton striker - showed off some sharp movement and intelligent link play on this return to Tyneside, his old club were finally pressing higher up the pitch. For a while they looked an entirely different team from their first half incarnation.
Albeit temporarily, Bruce’s critics were mollified and Southampton’s room for manoeuvre restricted but then Elyounoussi reprised memories of last Wednesday’s 8-0 League Cup win at Newport where he had scored a hat-trick.
The winger repaid Hasenhüttl’s faith by scoring his fourth goal of the week, sliding in to steer the ball beyond Woodman at the second attempt after Newcastle failed to clear Nathan Redmond’s cross.
Saint-Maximin then briefly silenced the chorus of invective rising in the throats of Gallowgate-Enders by slamming the ball past a helpless McCarthy after Joelinton’s cut back and Ward-Prowse had cleared Ryan Fraser’s shot off the line.
The Frenchman’s joyous celebration with fans proved premature though, as deep in stoppage time Lascelles’s foul permitted Ward-Prowse to enjoy the last word following a VAR check.
“We cannot play much better than the first half; we had a lot of chances,” said Hasenhüttl. “But you have to be happy with a point after a game like that.”
