Newcastle 2-2 Bournemouth - Magpies just a striker away from three points

Newcastle United drew against relegation fodder at St James' Park for the second time in a row after the 4-4 with Luton and now a 2-2 with Bournemouth.

The Magpies had to twice come from behind to rescue a point as they made life difficult for themselves.

Sven Botman gifted Dominic Solanke with the opening goal after playing an over-hit back-pass to Martin Dubravka who lost his footing trying to control the ball, allowing Solanke to steal in and roll the ball home just six minutes into the second half.

Dubravka was having a really good game until he slipped

It was a real gut punch for Dubravka who had made some excellent stops in the first half to keep the score level going into the break, but if Botman hadn't given it the beans when passing to the Slovakian, the disaster may have been averted.

Newcastle were soon back on level terms after Fabian Schar had his shirt pulled in the box following a free-kick, although it took VAR the best part of five minutes to work out whether or not it was a penalty. The spot kick was awarded and it was despatched beautifully by absolutely-not-a-striker Anthony Gordon.

The Magpies kept pushing for a second goal and dominated the game for the most part, but it was Bournemouth who would find the net again hitting Newcastle on the counter as Antoine Semenyo ran at Dan Burn who kept backing off, as a result the space opened up for Semenyo to hit a strike into the far corner beyond Dubravka to make it 2-1.

A fit striker would have made the world of difference

The game had that stink of "it's just not our day" about it, but the most unlikely hero popped up. Having only just come off the bench, former Bournemouth man Matt Ritchie popped up with the equaliser two minutes into 10 added-on. It took him two attempts to poke the ball home but the old man did it.

That set up a grandstand finish where either team could have scored as the ball pinged from end to end. It was another high-octane game involving Newcastle, but it's one that I can't help feel would have ended with a heavy win in Newcastle's favour had we had a fit striker on the pitch. On 86 minutes we'd had 33 touches in the opposition box to Bournemouth's 18 showing just how much we'd dominated. We just didn't have anyone to put the ball in the net.

It's a point at the end of the day, but it, like the Luton game, feels more like two points dropped in the grand scheme of things.