Elland Road held its breath as Kieran Trippier picked up the ball. No one expected the Newcastle United defender to take the penalty, but only a select few people inside the stadium knew what was going to happen next.
While Trippier's smart routine against Nottingham Forest was still fresh in the memory, Leeds United goalkeeper Joel Robles will not have been 100% certain about who the England international was going to give the ball to in the 31st minute. After all, this was the first time that a penalty had been awarded when Callum Wilson and Alexander Isak were both on the field together.
Trippier ultimately kept hold of the ball for a minute or so but rather than hand it over to Isak, like he did at the City Ground, the 31-year-old gave the ball to Wilson, who sent a timely reminder why he remains Newcastle's first-choice spot-kick taker. Wilson had to contend with deafening boos at Elland Road, but the ice-cool striker fired his first penalty into the bottom left-hand corner to make it 1-1. Robles may have read it, diving the right way, but the penalty was so well-struck that not even the towering goalkeeper could reach it.
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Yet Wilson's second penalty was even more impressive. There were 65 minutes on the clock when Junior Firpo's fingers touched the ball following Joe Willock's cross into the box and a lengthy VAR check commenced. It took nearly three minutes for referee Simon Hooper to finally give the penalty after he consulted the pitchside monitor.
Trippier again picked up the ball as Leeds captain Luke Ayling complained to Hooper inside the box. Leeds wondered who would take the spot-kick - Isak was lurking - but the stand-in skipper eventually handed the ball to Wilson once more.
Wilson kissed the ball before placing it down on the spot, which was the cue for Robles to rush out of his goal to try and get in his head. Wilson calmly picked up the ball and walked away as Robles was booked before the 31-year-old returned to the spot. Robles again left his line to shout at Wilson to try and put the striker off, but the number nine coolly sent the spot-kick straight down the middle to make it 2-1 and leave the diving Spaniard with no chance.
A whopping four minutes had passed since Firpo first handled the ball, but Wilson proved his mettle under immense pressure after Trippier did all he could to take the initial sting out of the situation for his team-mate.
"It certainly helped again," Howe told reporters. "You've got to leave the attacking player with a clear thought process. That will have helped Callum gather his thoughts without the aim and the intensity of the Leeds players towards him.
"There was probably a feeling where they did not know who was going to take it so it was difficult to pinpoint any type of further mind games that way so it was very clever again from Tripps."
However, after taking the lead with little more than 20 minutes to go, streetwise Newcastle, uncharacteristically, went on to drop points from a winning position following Rasmus Kristensen's late equaliser, which took a wicked deflection off Trippier. Newcastle ultimately had to settle for a point on a day the Magpies could just so easily have gone home with all three or, even, left empty-handed after Patrick Bamford had the chance to put Leeds 2-0 up before the half-hour mark following Ayling's early opener. That's how bonkers this topsy turvy game was.
In truth, the events of the next week or so will confirm whether this was an invaluable point against a revitalised side fighting for their lives, as it feels now, or two dropped versus a relegation-threatened team who have won just three league games in this calendar year. Newcastle remain in third place, with their fate in their own hands, and Howe's team know that five points will be enough to secure Champions League football as they prepare for back-to-back home games against Brighton and Leicester.
While these matches won't be straightforward - Brighton and Leicester suffered heavy defeats last week but still have plenty to play for - Newcastle would certainly have taken that at the start of the campaign.
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