Newcastle United fought back from two goals down to rescue a point against Bournemouth, but their unbeaten start owed more to resilience than a convincing performance.
Bournemouth dominated the first half and could have taken a bigger lead into the break. Newcastle looked disjointed in possession, lacked attacking cohesion and made a series of costly defensive errors.
The visitors opened the scoring when Rayan found space out wide before his cross caused confusion in the Newcastle defence. Alex Scott’s effort took a deflection towards the far post, where Marcus Tavernier reacted quickest to bundle the ball home.
Bournemouth continued to threaten and should have doubled their lead when a poor Sven Botman pass sent Evanilson through, but the striker fired over from inside the box.
Newcastle then gifted Bournemouth another opportunity after a heavy touch from new signing Amar Dedić. Justin Kluivert’s long-range effort struck the post and rebounded off goalkeeper Lukasz Hrádecký before Scott’s attempted cross deflected into the net off Malick Thiaw.
Newcastle looked in disarray, but Harvey Barnes gave them hope just 25 seconds after half-time with a superb strike.
Despite seeing more of the ball afterwards, Newcastle created little. Joe Willock headed wide before substitute Jacob Ramsey finally found the equaliser to earn a point.
For new manager Matthias Jaissle, the comeback will offer some encouragement after a poor opening 45 minutes. Newcastle remain unbeaten, while Bournemouth extend their unbeaten run at St James’ Park to five matches.
