Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 Newcastle

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For the bazillionth time this season, Newcastle got themselves into a winning position, but couldn't see out the win, coming from behind to lead at Leverkusen before conceding a late equaliser to deny a crucial Champions League away win.

On the face of it - and on the balance of play - a point at the recent Bundesliga champions isn't a bad result.

And indeed, we had our fair share of luck, both good and bad, throughout the game.

The good luck came in a first half dominated by Leverkusen.

Already leading courtesy of a scruffy Bruno own goal, Patrick Schick raced through the middle and was clumsily brought down by Thiaw on the edge of the box.

Initially pointing to the spot, the saving grace was that the card would be yellow.

However, when it became clear the contact was outside the box, a red looked to be forthcoming - only to be cleared as a yellow by VAR, presumably because Livramento was just about in the vicinity and had a chance of getting the ball.

Coming out a different team in the second half and dominating proceedings, we got our second bit of luck when Mark Flekken somehow contrived to miss the biggest man on the pitch, Big Nick, closing down on him (maybe the green kit finally paid off in the form of camoflage?) and attempted an awful Cruyff turn, lost the ball, and brought down Woltemade for a penalty.

For the third successive game, Gordon stepped up and dispatched a confident penalty to level the scores.

And after another sloppy performance, Joelinton tweaked his groin and was replaced by Miley, who looked assured and headed home a fantastic left-footed Gordon cross to become Newcastle's youngest ever Champions League goalscorer.

The bad luck, however, involved us hitting the woodwork twice (the second one narrowly missing Flekken's legs on the rebound which could have diverted the ball into the net), as well as a good save by Flekken from a close range Thiaw header, and a scooped volley from Thiaw going narrowly over.

Following Miley's goal though, our game management went out the window, as it has so many times this season.

It looked to me like minutes for Wissa, and possibly Elanga, would have given us an outlet and prevented Leverkusen being able to press forward constantly.

As it was, we kept Wissa on the bench until the 92nd minute, by which time the scores were level after Grimaldo had been able to stroll through a disjointed defence.

We didn't particularly look like losing it from there, but there was yet another sense of what could, and probably should, have been.

So instead of bouncing into the derby on the back of what could have been a really galvanising victory, we go in with doubts about our mentality.

A victory over our friends across the river would go a hell of a long way to supress those doubts.