Drama in the final minutes in a game that Saints snatched a point from the jaws of defeat, but really should have won comfortably but didn't due to poor finishing and poor defending, but due to the last kick of the game equaliser it felt a lot better than it should of.
Ralph Hasenhuttl tweaked the side brining in Moi Elyounoussi for Theo Walcott and Kyle Walker Peters at left back for Romain Perraud to offer something a little different than in the opening two Premier league fixtures.
The match stats make familiar reading for Saints fans, total domination in possession 64% with 22 shots compared to the hosts 10, but a failure to convert these to to the ones that matter on target 6 with Newcastle 5 and of course the goals stats 2 apiece.
We had glaring misses not least Moussa Djenepo who scooped it over the ball with an open goal at his mercy from close range and we had poor defending with Newcastle breaking twice to score after finding themselves catching out a defence who failed to watch where their men were .
When Newcastle scored on 55 minutes it was totally against the run of play, a diagonal ball catching our defence square and giving Newcastle a lead they scarcely deserved, when Saints got back on level terms with Moi Elyounoussi making it 4 goals in a week with a sliding equaliser that was initially saved by the keeper only to hit the Saints player as his sliding momentum carried him forward and he bundled it over the line.
The cross from Nathan Redmond was inch perfect to pick out the player and credit must be given to Redmond to offering Saints a different attacking option when he came on with his ability to run at players.
From then on you thought it would be Saints who would finish it off, the crowd was on their backs and surely we could capitalise.
But it was Newcastle who appeared to win the game on the stroke of 90 minutes, from the upper slopes of Mount St James Park the initial through pass looked to be offside but there was no flag, defending worthy of our worst moments of last season then ensued before who else but Saint-Maxim fired the ball home to give the Toon a win they didn't deserve.
At least that is what everyone in the ground felt, both home and away fans, but there was to be a late late twist, with the clock already past the allotted injury time, it was Nathan Redmond who ran at the home defence and threaded a through ball for Adam Armstrong, a last ditch tackle appeared to have dealt with the danger, but then came VAR and it showed that the former Newcastle striker had been clearly brought down.
The tension was unbearable both for home and away fans, but James Ward Prowse made no mistake with what proved to be the last kick of the game but one the final whistle being blown immediately after the restart.
It felt like a win, but the reality is that it was a bitter sweet draw, the bitter as how we had nearly thrown the game away in the 90th minute, where was the cool head at the back making sure that we had everyone marking their men and tight, we were in disarray and had lost concentration.
When Saint - Maxim scored there were 5 Saints players and the goalkeeper in the penalty area but only 3 Newcastle players yet we were all at sea.
The sweet in that even with only 4 minutes of injury time left we still kept going and Nathan Redmond answered some of his critics by his running and delivery that brought that last gasp penalty.
For much of the game we had possession we moved the ball well but lacked urgency, that changed with the arrival of Redmond in the 58th minute and it showed that the squad now has depth.
The fact was though that even though this was a point we have failed to get in each of our last 3 visits to St James Park, it really should have been all three, we were the better side throughout and for all the improvement in the squad, the Achilles heel remains our inability to control the game defensively, no one takes charge in the back four and both goals could have and should have been defended.
If we had got al three points this would have been a good start to the season, as it is it is average, out of the corresponding fixtures last year we got 0 points, this year we have got 2 and there are some good signs we have a good squad.
But the it still goes back to the fact that we have not addressed that central defensive weakness, perhaps Lyanco will be the answer and hopefully by the next game he will be ready to make his debut.