Newcastle United and Liverpool roll back the years and put on one of the most entertaining games this season

Newcastle United may feel they actually did enough to win tonight as a strangely off-kilter Liverpool side came to St James' Park.

The Magpies probably should have been out of sight going in at the break as Liverpool were miles off the pace but Newcastle squandered a couple of big chances to build a solid lead.

Still, thanks to a rocket by Alexander Isak, Eddie Howe's side went in at the break with a 1-0 lead and looked good value for it.

Of course, you don't get to open up a nine-point lead at the top of the Premier League if you just roll over and accept your fate, and Liverpool came out for the second half in a much better headspace. It only took them five minutes to level things up and then it was game on!

The second half was an end-to-end spectacle of football

While the first half was impressive for how well Newcastle played, the second half was just an entertaining spectacle all-round. Likely a lot more enjoyable for the neutral viewer, but still an entertaining second half nonetheless.

Just 12 minutes after Curtis Jones' equaliser, Anthony Gordon had the home side back in the lead only for Mo Salah to punish Newcastle for a wayward pass by Jacob Murphy to tie things up again six minutes later.

Mo Salah popped up again in the 83rd minute with a sublime turn and shot into the bottom corner and once the pendulum had swung in Liverpool's favour it just felt like that was going to be it for Newcastle.

Newcastle weren't about to give up despite going behind after twice leading

Alexander Isak was felled just inside the box but the referee didn't give the penalty and VAR decided there wasn't enough in it to overturn the decision and that definitely felt like the final nail in the Magpies' coffin.

However, Newcastle must have all watched The Goonies last night because they had their 'never say die' attitude and a free kick was played deep into the Liverpool box which evaded everyone except Fabian Schar who slid in at the back post to guide the ball into the net to tie things up.

Liverpool started getting desperate and had two penalty appeals waved away late on which must have made the referee feel super guilty because he blew the full-time whistle as Newcastle were bearing down on goal with Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson in a two-v-one situation. It seemed like a shocking time to end the game and Nick Pope found himself picking up a post-match booking for telling the ref exactly that.

Why can't we play like this against 'lesser' sides?

If Newcastle could play like this against the Premier League's poorer sides, we'd be lifting the trophy in May. It just seems like we can only turn it on against the big boys, though.

The winless run against Liverpool continues, but we had them on the ropes tonight and we halted their seven-game winning streak.

We didn't win, but we've got a lot to be proud of tonight. However ... Jacob Murphy is not the answer unless the question is "Which Newcastle United player should be nowhere near the Starting XI?"

Howe took a risk reuniting the midfield trio of Bruno Guimares, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton but tonight it worked really well. Out of three, Bruno was probably the one who was off the pace, Joey had some big moments and Sandro was absolutely excellent. Perhaps they are starting to gel after all.

What were your thoughts on tonight's match?