Here was a game that was there to be won but with two teams who did not know how.
Had the referee let them carry on, you suspect Monday’s transfer deadline would have passed before the ball crossed the goal-line. Elland Road is always high on noise, but this was terribly low on quality. A stadium that roared and a football match that wheezed.
Newcastle will be glad to see the back of this summer, but left behind with all of the transfer trauma is a bagful of points. With a striker, it is not a stretch to say they would have taken the maximum of nine.