Newcastle United finally woke up. The Magpies had been depressingly absent so far this season, thanks to a combination of injuries and coming down from last year's magical wonder-ride, but they shrugged off their woes to beat Southampton 4-2 in a game that's be remembered for a stunning Papiss Cisse strike.
Newcastle vs. Southampton: Final score 4-2, Cisse wondergoal the story
Matthew Lewis
It looked like more bad news for the hosts when the Saints took a third minute lead through Morgan Schneiderlin, who took advantage of a knockdown from Ricky Lambert to slot past stand-in goalkeeper Robert Elliot, but Newcastle responded well and immediately got themselves back in the game.
In fact, the only surprise about Moussa Sissoko's equaliser, which came after a neat cross by Yoann Gouffran, was that it didn't come sooner. Southampton had held their lead for half an hour.
They’d go behind within nine minutes thanks to an absolutely superb goal by Cisse. It was route one football from Newcastle -- Elliot hit a long free kick to Sissoko, and his knockdown gave Cisse the time and space he needed to send in a 35-yard screamer which was hit so hard that Artur Boruc had no chance of keeping it out despite virtually standing on his line.
Lambert did equalise shortly after halftime as Newcastle switched off, but the lead was soon reestablished when Matheiu Debuchy's cross hit Danny Fox in the arm, with Yohan Cabaye converting the penalty, and salt was rubbed into Southampton's wounds when Fox's errant clearance crashed off the unfortunate Jos Hooiveld and in for an own goal to put the match out of reach.
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