How many more times is this going to happen? - Newcastle United let lead slip late in the game yet again as they draw with Bayer Leverkusen
It's all just a bit of history repeating. Newcastle United needed penalties to get goals and then going on to let a lead slip in the dying embers of a game. It's genuinely worrying.
We've seen it happen in so many games this season where Newcastle just go to sleep for the final throes of a match and drop points, and it's becoming absolutely sickening.
We aren't saying that a draw wasn't a fair result on the balance of play tonight, and we'd have taken the point before kick-off, but it's the manner in which those two points were dropped.
An 88th-minute Alex Grimaldo goal snatched the point for the Bundesliga side after an Anthony Gordon penalty cancelled out a Bruno Guimaraes own goal and Lewis Miley nodded the Magpies into the lead.
Newcastle had all the possession and pressure to put this game well out of reach
We have to remember that Leverkusen beat Manchester City on their own turf a couple of weeks ago, so they are not an easy team to face.
Newcastle once again controlled possession but didn't create too many chances. They were unfortunate to go behind on 13 minutes when a poorly defended corner resulted in a goal off the outstretched leg of Bruno Guimaraes.
Newcastle were also fortunate to still have 11 men on the pitch after Malick Thiaw brought down a Leverkusen attacker on the edge of the area. A penalty check passed, and the referee's award of a yellow card wasn't forced into anything worse.
After that, though, apart from the odd dangerous counter-attack, Leverkusen were reasonably quiet as Newcastle kept the pressure on. But for whatever reason, that pressure didn't translate into chances.
We don't know about you but we're not looking forward to Sunday at all
Where Leverkusen were denied a penalty in the first half, Newcastle were awarded one at the same end when former Brentford 'keeper Mark Flekken tried to take on Nick Woltemade instead of clearing his lines, and the German managed to force the Dutch goalkeeper into a foul, resulting in a third penalty in as many games for Newcastle, which, as with the previous two, was expertly put away by Anthony Gordon.
Gordon had another decent game, in fact, and saw a superb shot come back off the post in the middle of the second half. The first of two times the Magpies struck the woodwork.
Lewis Miley almost became a Newcastle hero on 74 minutes when he towered above the Leverkusen defence to nod home, putting Newcastle in the lead and up into sixth place in the league.
Unfortunately, we did our usual thing of not seeing out games, and Grimaldo was able to tie things up on 88 minutes. Eddie Howe brought on Yoane Wissa in stoppage time, but honestly, what was the point? He should have been on long before then.
I'm not going to lie, I'm genuinely terrified about Sunday. If we can't concentrate for 90 minutes, we're going to keep getting done, and the last thing we need is to concede another last-minute goal to drop points against that lot!
