Bournemouth 1-1 Newcastle: Eddie Howe falters at the Vitality Stadium yet again

Newcastle United get away with one for the second week running after a horrific performance for 70 minutes.

Eddie Howe's lads were lucky last week to grab the win against Southampton and were perhaps even luckier this week as they snatched a draw at the Vitality against Bournemouth, a ground where Howe hasn't won in the Premier League as Newcastle's boss.

Newcastle started brightly, playing some neat football for the opening 15 minutes without ever really threatening Neto's goal. Alexander Isak looked superb in the opening exchanges, it's just a shame that Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon weren't on his wavelength at all.

In fact, Gordon didn't look like he was tuned into any frequency for most of the game.

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Bournemouth took the lead on 37 minutes

Bournemouth grew into the game as time went on and once they found their footing it only ever looked like it would be the Cherries who would break the deadlock and that's exactly what happened.

Antoine Semenyo, who had a fantastic game, nicked the ball off a sleeping Joelinton and was given all the time and space he needed to put a ball across the face of goal where Marcus Tavernier was waiting to prod home from close range as Tino Livramento had a leisurely stroll back to his position.

The first half ended with the score at 1-0 with very little belief that Newcastle could get back into things with the current personnel on the field.

Howe's substitutions turned the tide

Howe made no changes at half time but didn't wait too long to change things up with Jacob Murphy and Tino Livramento hooked for Kieran Trippier and Harvey Barnes.

Almost instantly, Newcastle started playing better with Harvey Barnes grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck. Lewis Hall and Joe Willock replaced Lloyd Kelly and Sean Longstaff and the Magpies' game went up another level.

If Newcastle fail to acquire another winger this week then starting Gordon on the right and Barnes on the left may be the way to go because that tactical switch seemed to wake Gordon up and, as we said, Barnes we well up for it.

Barnes skipped down the left wing and put in a cross to the back stick for Gordon to poke home and level things up. Gordon's performance didn't deserve a goal. but that's what great players do. Even when they're poor, they can still change a game.

The game ended in a total farce

From there, Newcastle really should have gone on to win the game and probably would have were it not for Bournemouth's keeper Neto who was in inspired form. Neto made a couple of top-drawer saves but the pick of the bunch was clawing Bruno Guimaraes' curling effort from right out of the top corner.

Against the run of play, Bournemouth had the ball in the Newcastle net deep in stoppage time but VAR ruled that the ball had gone into the net via Dango Ouattara's arm. It looked like it came off his shoulder to me, or at least the sleeved part of his arm, but VAR ruled it was low enough down his arm to be classed as handball and we surely weren't going to argue.

Then, just to add insult to injury for Bournemouth, Joelinton, who was shocking all game, clotheslined Neto and only picked up a booking. It looked for all the world a red card, but instead, the ref showed a yellow to Joelinton and a red to a member of the Bournemouth coaching staff.

The match had completely descended into a farce with over eight minutes of stoppage time being played after four was added on.

Newcastle's winless run at Bournemouth continues, and if something isn't done about the level of our performances, it's going to be a long old season.