"The two minutes just after half-time summed it up, where we could have gone 4-1 up and looked very, very rosy indeed. Instead within a minute, it's 3-2 and we're down to 10 men. The last half an hour is awful, to be brutally honest.

"It's not often you can hang on with 10 men for half an hour, let alone 25 minutes with nine men. The resilience of the team and the effort and the commitment of them was terrific."

Newcastle looked to be cruising with 26 minutes gone when, after debutant Joe Willock's 16th-minute opener, defender Jan Bednarek, playing after a successful appeal against his red card at Manchester United in midweek, turned Miguel Almiron's shot into his own net.

Takumi Minamino marked his first appearance for the Saints with a goal four minutes later, but Almiron sent the Magpies in at the break 3-1 ahead after cashing in on a mix-up between goalkeeper Alex McCarthy and Ryan Bertrand.

However, the real drama was to come in the second half, when James Ward-Prowse reduced the deficit with a sumptuous free-kick before Hendrick was sent off, before Schar was carried off on a stretcher 15 minutes from time.

But the hosts managed to hang on to claim a morale-boosting win, although at some cost with leading scorer Callum Wilson and full-back Javier Manquillo also having been added to the casualty list.

Bruce said: "We're taking one step forward, it seems, and always two back. You can understand why managers were complaining because we were simply playing too much in December and January and most clubs are falling to pieces with it."

Saints counterpart Ralph Hasenhuttl had hoped for a response to Tuesday night's 9-0 mauling at Manchester United, a game his side finished with only nine men, but was less than impressed after witnessing a fifth successive league defeat.

Hasenhuttl said: "It's easy to sum up: defensively not good enough for the Premier League, again. The way we conceded the goals in the first half was far too easy and then it's always tough to come back.

"We tried everything in the second half, but also with not always the best tools and this is the reason why we in the end lose a game that you never have to lose, normally.

"Maybe we were a little bit under the shock from last Tuesday, but (I) cannot accept it because the team seemed motivated at the beginning, everybody wanted to show up there and that's the reason why I am not happy."