Tonight Newcastle United gave us the answers we have been searching for all season
Shortly after Leeds United opened the scoring at St James' Park tonight, Sky Sports put up a graphic showing that Newcastle United had not picked up a single point from a losing position all season.
That, combined with Eddie Howe's dismal record against Leeds, and the fact that Newcastle had looked asleep right up until Brenden Aaronson's opener, all spelt bad news for Toon fans.
All season, we have been questioning the mentality of the squad. In so many games this season we have taken the lead and then shut off as if we thought we were playing next goal wins.
In other games, we've questioned the commitment altogether. And while tonight there were still a few players who were way off the pace, we got something to give us hope tonight. Something that shows that we still have some fight in us.
There was no questioning Newcastle's mentality tonight
There is certainly a lot to work on. Malick Thiaw had a bad day at the office. We're still not sure how or why he fell over to gift Leeds their opener, and we feel he was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball for Leeds' penalty, but it was definitely the right call to hook him at half time.
Sandro Tonali was anonymous in the first half, and while we thought it would have made sense to take Joelinton out of the game after his outburst with the ref on the stroke of half-time, Eddie Howe ultimately made the right call.
Anthony Gordon was practically useless once again and only survived on the pitch for as long as he did because Fabian Schar's injury changed Howe's plans.
Who was your Player of the Match against Leeds?
How are we supposed to sleep tonight with all this adrenaline?
But beyond those three, the fight shown by the rest of the team tonight was exceptional. Harvey Barnes, playing on the right flank because Anthony Gordon wouldn't, showed the England international how it's done, scoring twice and having a generally outstanding game.
Bruno Guimaraes was having a quiet game before laying on a sublime assist for Joelinton and scoring from the spot himself, showing once again how you can never count him out.
Joelinton was imperious again. He's really made a return to the side with a point to prove, and he is proving it very well.
After coming back from a losing position three times to ultimately win the game, we absolutely can not question the side's mentality tonight.
However, the question now is ... can we keep this up? And by that I mean, the desire and the hunger, we don't want them to put us through another game like that for a long, long time.
