The away end taunted: "Champions League? You're having a laugh!" Stuart Armstrong had just put bottom of the table Southampton 1-0 up against Newcastle United before half-time at St James' Park. That was not in the script.
How would off-colour Newcastle respond to this latest test of their top four credentials? Quite emphatically as it goes. By full-time, Newcastle were celebrating a 3-1 win after substitute Callum Wilson inspired a second-half turnaround with a strike either side of Theo Walcott's own goal as the Magpies stayed nine points clear of Liverpool in third place with just five games to go.
It was a comeback masterminded away from the cameras in the home dressing room at the break. Something clearly had to change following a flat opening 45 minutes on Sunday and Eddie Howe was the first to recognise that 'our body language was not what we needed to be on the pitch'. A 'few things needed to be said' at half-time to 'try to change how we saw the challenge'. However, rather than dwelling on the negatives, it was all about trying to 'win a different way'. Newcastle duly did that. As Wilson put it: "It was mindset more than anything....second half we blew them away."
