Liverpool's Resilience in St James' Park Draw Against Newcastle

Andoni Iraola walked off the St James’ Park touchline with a point and a headache. His team had been dragged through a wild opening-day contest, twice falling behind to Newcastle, twice clawing their way back.

Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock struck for the hosts. Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai answered for the visitors. The scoreboard told one story. The manner of the equaliser at the death told another.

"It's a strange feeling. Not the result we wanted but it's true, the way we scored the goal in the end, it tastes better. Still, we would have definitely preferred the win," Iraola told BBC, the relief of the late comeback cutting through the frustration of dropped points. Going 2-1 down away from home, in that atmosphere, and refusing to fold – that, he felt, mattered.

The game had started in exactly the way he feared.

Liverpool were behind inside five minutes, stunned before they had even settled. Iraola did not dress it up.

"We started the game the worst way we knew. Newcastle away, first game of the season, the atmosphere, they have very fast players and we concede the goal," he said. They were punished early and forced to chase, the worst possible script on opening weekend.

"They punished us and we had to go against the result. But we didn't give up in any moment." That refusal to let the contest drift became the thread of their afternoon.

After the break, the pattern shifted. Liverpool finally grabbed control of the ball and, with it, a measure of calm.

"Once you concede the first goal, you need the game to go fast. You need things to happen when you're losing," Iraola explained. The tempo rose. Newcastle, who had feasted on space in the first half, were pushed back.

"We could control the game in the second half. We had better possession around their box. When we scored, it looked like we were the team going to turn the game but then they scored again." Just as the momentum tilted red, Newcastle landed another punch. The visitors had to rise a second time.

The intensity of the contest stripped energy from legs on both sides, and Iraola leaned hard on his bench. His game model demands constant running, relentless pressing; on day one of the season, that comes at a price.

"Jeremy hasn't done a proper pre-season, so it was kind of expected that he didn't finish the game," he said of Jeremy Jacquet, one of several players withdrawn. "All the substitutes gave us energy. We need it because it's difficult to last the full 90 minutes with the same players the way we want to play. Players coming off the bench can affect the game."

One of those changes did exactly that. Victor Munoz, introduced late, drove at tired defenders and dragged Liverpool back into it with a decisive contribution in the box, winning the stoppage-time penalty that sealed the draw.

Iraola felt the forward could have had even more.

"Victor almost had another penalty but the referee whistled before conceding it but it was even more clear. So he has really affected the game," the manager said, still bristling at what might have been yet acutely aware of the impact his substitute had made.

The win slipped away, but the character on display – the refusal to accept an opening-day defeat in one of the league’s most hostile arenas – offered Iraola something to build on. If this is the level of resilience on week one, what happens when the fitness, and the finishing, catch up?