Newcastle led twice and were 99 minutes from beating Liverpool. Then Lewis Hall went to ground

Two managers made their league debuts at St James' Park and one of them nearly got the perfect start. Anthony Elanga scored inside five minutes, punishing a Liverpool midfield that had committed too many bodies forward too early.

Liverpool came out better after the break and Cody Gakpo levelled on 55, set up by Ryan Gravenberch. Two minutes later Joe Willock put Newcastle back in front, and from there it was a matter of holding on.

Nine minutes of stoppage time, and one lunge

In the 96th minute Lewis Hall went in on substitute Victor Munoz inside the Newcastle box. Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot, VAR looked at it, and after a long wait Dominik Szoboszlai put it into the top corner. The clock read 99 minutes.

Matthias Jaissle called the decision really soft, which is what you say when your side has just been caught at the very end. He was happier with the rest: "I'm really happy with the performance. The guys were fighting till the end."

Andoni Iraola pointed at his substitutes: "Players from the bench gave us energy. Everyone won't last 90 minutes." On a day when Liverpool had 27 shots and saw sixteen of them blocked, that is the honest reading — they never quite found the clean route through.

Newcastle did the hard part well

Thirteen shots from 39.2% of the ball, four on target and two goals is a good day's work. Yoane Wissa was a constant problem, Elanga finished the one chance that mattered early, and five yellow cards is the price of a game defended at that pitch.

Match facts

• 5' — Anthony Elanga (Newcastle)
• 55' — Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), assisted by Ryan Gravenberch
• 57' — Joe Willock (Newcastle)
• 90+9' — Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool), penalty
• Penalty awarded for Lewis Hall's challenge on Victor Munoz, confirmed by VAR

Three matchweeks later, level again

Three matchweeks on, the two sides that shared a point at St James' Park sit almost on top of each other in the table. Liverpool are 6th on 5 points — one win, two draws, six goals scored and four conceded — occupying the last Europa League place. Newcastle are one spot behind on the same 5 points, the same 1-2-0 record and the identical 6-4 goal difference. Whatever separated them on the opening weekend has not widened since; the draw that started both campaigns turned out to be a fair preview of how close they have stayed.

Newcastle's unbeaten run continued

Jaissle's side did not lose again in August. A week after sharing the spoils with Liverpool, Anthony Elanga scored his second goal in as many matches and Yoane Wissa added a second as Newcastle won 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — Spurs' first two league games without scoring at all. Matchweek 3 brought a rockier afternoon back at St James' Park: Bournemouth led twice, through Marcus Tavernier and a Malick Thiaw own goal, before Harvey Barnes hit back inside two minutes and Jacob Ramsey's 88th-minute finish completed a 2-2 comeback. Three matches, one win and two draws, nothing lost — the same refusal to fold that forced Liverpool into stoppage time on the opening day carried through the rest of the month.

Liverpool's bumpy first month, then a breakthrough

Iraola's opening weeks as Liverpool manager followed the same script twice before it finally broke. A week after Szoboszlai's stoppage-time penalty rescued a point at Newcastle, Nottingham Forest led twice at Anfield through Dan Ndoye and a Morgan Gibbs-White penalty, and it took a deflected Víctor Muñoz strike off the underside of the bar in the 82nd minute to salvage another 2-2. The pattern only broke at Portman Road in matchweek 3: Alexander Isak scored twice inside three first-half minutes, both created by Cody Gakpo, in a 2-0 win that handed Iraola his first victory and first clean sheet as Liverpool manager. Two draws and four goals conceded either side of the equaliser at St James' Park, then a first win to show for it.

What's next

Newcastle go to Tottenham on Saturday 29 August, against a side that has its own reasons to be angry after opening weekend. Liverpool host Nottingham Forest the same day — a point from St James' Park is not a bad start for Iraola, but it will not feel like one for a while.