The positives far outweighed the negatives as Newcastle United battled to a 2-2 draw against Southampton on the opening day of the Barclays Premier League season at St James' Park. Graziano Pelle opened the scoring with a sensational header before Papiss Cisse chested the ball over the line after a Massadio Haidara cross looped over the head of Saints keeper Maarten Stekelenburg. New £14.5 million man Georginio Wijnaldum powered home a header early in the second-half after a sweeping United counter attack and pinpoint cross from Gabriel Obertan to give Newcastle the lead, before Shane Long out-jumped Daryl Janmaat to secure a point for the Europa League side. Even though United had much of the game in their favour, they can count themselves ever so slightly fortunate to come away from the match with a point as Saints had a number of opportunities to snatch all three points. Sadio Mane put a routine side-footer wide while United were thankful that Jack Colback was in the right place at the right time as he stopped what would have been two certain goals. All in all however it was a solid outing for Steve McClaren's Newcastle, as they were more than deserving of a point on the day. Here's 10 things we learned from the game...
