Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool

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The Matthias Jaissle era got underway at a lively St James' Park in an entertaining and credible 2-2 draw with Liverpool.

However, while there was lots of new stuff on display, some things never change, Liverpool equalising with a penalty in the sixth minute of five added on.

Starting at the beginning, there was a truly magnificent, whole-ground tribute to Kevin Keegan before kickoff, including a LEGEND mural filling the centre circle made up of fans' donated shirts.

The only more raucous reception may have been the one afforded one Mr A Isak, formerly of this parish and heckled more relentlessly than any player in living memory.

Naturally, being a man of such mental steel, he absolutely, er, bottled it, completely anonymous from start to finish save for a few skewed half-chances.

Naturally the last minute penalty brought forth the possibility of the ultimate nightmare scenario, but he declined to take responsibility (something Schar and Botman seemed keen to point out to him).

Funny that.

This new look Newcastle - lining up in a genuine 4-2-3-1 with Wissa in the 10 role behind Osula, and a youthful duo of Miley and Steur behind him - had literally raced into the lead in the fifth minute as Elanga put the afterburners on and left Kerkez running in treacle, slotting home with a confidence that belied his first year at the club.

However, the transformation between last season's Wissa and his current iteration look like it has the potential to be a serious shot in the arm.

He looks fit, sharp, and most importantly motivated in a way that he just never did last season.

In him and Osula we have a really dangerous pairing, though questions remain about Woltemade's suitability for the Premier League despite Jaissle's insistence he was working to get the best out of him after game.

A fairly even first half ended with Newcastle in the lead, but when Liverpool equalised with an unstoppable long-range Gakpo shot, we got a first hint of a different managerial ethos as we immediately made some subs, including Joe Willock, widely tipped to depart.

However, just a minute after coming on, he also rolled back the years, and following a run from Wissa of the type of which I didn't realise he had in his locker, Willock received the ball and shot home brilliantly from outside the box.

From there we did retreat, expectedly, but had chances ourselves, notably Wissa not making proper contact from 5 yards out, and nobody getting on the end of a trademark Murphy cross across the six-yard box (don't worry, we still got our 75th minute Elanga/Murphy swap).

And just as we looked to have survived for a seriously memorable first win under the new boss, Hall, who had been excellent, seemed to have got himself out of the way of Munoz, only for the Spanish winger to hit the deck anyway and win the penalty.

So despite the genuine concern of dropping points from a winning position AGAIN, the overriding feeling here was positivity at the changes underfoot.

With an ambitious bid for Nico Gonzalez allegedly progressing (I'll believe it when I see it), all signs are that we expect to be active in the remainder of the transfer window.

Next up, a visit to Sandro Tonali's new stomping ground.

Let's hope he and his team mates look as interested as they did at Brentford on the opening day.