Newcastle would have lost this during a troubled first half of the season.
It had become an all-too-familiar scenario on Tyneside - domination followed by despair. They lost five on the spin in front of their own crowd for the first time in 64 years over November and December, when just one point was collected from a possible 27.
They were not playing poorly, far from it, they just lacked quality in the final third. And so in January manager Rafa Benitez brought in winger Kenedy on loan from Chelsea and their fortunes changed.
