Newcastle Tie Southampton

 1-1 

Newcastle United hosted Southampton for an evenly matched Premier League showdown.  The two clubs were separated by just three points in the Premier League table coming into the match, with Southampton looking to catch up.

Southampton started the match on the right foot and controlled close to 70% of possession.  However a costly mistake by defender Jos Hooiveld provided Newcastle with a scoring opportunity.  A free-kick from midfield put the ball in the box for Newcastle with plenty of men forward.  Hooiveld had a chance to clear the ball out of his box, but he missed his clearance to give Yoan Gouffran a second chance.  Waiting behind Hooiveld, Gouffran used his first touch to get around the keeper before scoring the first goal of the match (28').

After the goal, momentum shifted in Newcastle's favor and the home team was able to move more freely and pass more effectively.  Following half-time Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino made two changes to his squad hoping to improve their performance.  Osvaldo came out for Lallana and Ward-Prowse came out for Schneiderlin, but it was Jay Rodriguez that benefited from the changes.  Moving from midfield to forward, Rodriguez was far more threatening than Osvaldo had been as the lone striker.  On a counter-attack, Rodriguez and Steven Davis linked up to get behind the Newcastle defense.  Davis played the final through-ball and Rodriguez scored the equalizer (65').

Neither side could score the winning goal and the match ended in a draw.  One point for each club mean neither make ground on the other as three points still separate the teams in the table.  Newcastle travel to Crystal Palace next week, while Southampton host Tottenham.