Newcastle 2-2 Chelsea

&c

Despite a much improved performance, a two goal lead was yet again squandered in the early kick off against Chelsea on Saturday, not helped by the concession of two cheap goals, our lack of ruthlessness when on top, and an absolutely pathetic refereeing performance.

Screaming into an early lead when Woltemade leathered home a rebound following a Sanchez save from a close range Gordon effort, we kept our foot on the gas and could have been two up even before Big Nick doubled the scoring after 20 minutes, delightfully flicking home a fantastic Gordon ball.

This performance was everything the derby - and other recent games - wasn't, as Big Nick got in the box, Gordon and Murphy harried and harangued, and the midfield snapped into tackles.

Nagging doubts about our resilience surfaced as Woltemade spurned the chance of a first career hat trick when he should have scored, and Gordon was denied by a brilliant Sanchez save but shouldn't have given him the opportunity.

The Gordon chance came about as Malo Gusto lay apparently fatally injured in the box, awaiting a whistle that never came (a theme of the day), but a Christmas miracle occurred as he managed to continue after the ball had gone out.

By this point, Garnacho could have seen red for a studs up tackle on Jacob Ramsey that was nastier than the one Xavi Simons saw red for later in the day for Spurs against Liverpool.

Now, I am not a professional journalist (quite obviously), I'm a Newcastle fan, and perfectly willing to acknowledge my bias, but I try to take an objective view on things as much as any fan can when writing about their own team.

However, when a refereeing performance is so bad it draws comment from Eddie Howe and an op-ed from nufc dot com, I find it hard to ignore.

Following the Garnacho non-decision (which was given as a yellow card and apparently not checked by VAR - reasons unknown), Cole Palmer 'won' a very soft yellow card 30 yards from goal early in the second half.

Aaron Ramsdale took up a peculiar position well away from the centre of his goal, and Reece James duly stepped up and pinged the ball in low off the post.

Ramsdale made some good saves during the game, but nothing about him screams confidence to me.

Shortly after came the worst refereeing decision we've been on the end of in a good while, Gordon racing into the box only to be smashed out of play by Trevoh Chalobah via a combination of shoulder and leg.

With Chalobah quite clearly not looking at the ball, the award of a goal kick was a clear and obvious error to everybody watching - everybody bar VAR, who cheerfully cleared the original non-decision.

To rub salt into the wounds, former two time Toon target Joao Pedro then got on the end of a long Sanchez punt, turned the unwitting Thiaw (who slipped, but was woefully mis-positioned on the outside of Pedro in the first place), strolled unopposed into the box and stroked the ball home.

We still had good chances to win it from there, Barnes volleying agonisingly wide when he had to score, then dallying over an inch perfect Wissa through ball and inviting a last ditch tackle.

There was even time for one last controversy, Barnes chasing a bouncing ball and being dragged back outside of the area, the defender surviving a half hearted VAR check for a red card.

Of all of the injustices, this was the softest, as I don't think Barnes would have gotten there - though there was a definite pull of his arm which would have led to a free kick on the edge of there box right at the end of the game.

So ultimately, a much better performance with all the familiar failings - second half drop off, nervous goalkeeping, not taking our chances, and of course, the hateful application of VAR, apparently only used to find any excuse to chalk off a goal (Big Nick's second taking minutes to clear) whilst refusing to get involved in clear cut decisions.

Bah humbug.