Newcastle United and Southampton play out an entertaining 2-2 draw at St James' Park to see the points shared on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

Shane Long came off the bench to rescue Southampton a 2-2 draw in their Premier League opener away at Newcastle United.

Shane Long of Southampton (7) celebrates with Victor Wanyama (12) and Graziano Pelle (L) as he scores their second goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Southampton at St James' Park on August 9, 2015 © Getty Images

The Irishman headed home from a Dusan Tadic cross less than 15 minutes after being introduced to deny Steve McClaren a winning start to his Magpies reign.

Georginio Wijnaldum almost scored within 10 minutes of his first competitive start by latching onto Moussa Sissoko's slide-rule pass before his strike was blocked by Steven Davis.

Tim Krul had stopped United falling behind early on as Cedric Soares was allowed room to shoot from a tight angle before the international keeper smothered the full-back's effort.

Newcastle appealed for a penalty on 22 minutes as Fabricio Coloccini thought his header was stopped by the arm of Maya Yoshida, although referee Craig Pawson was unconvinced.

However, Southampton took the lead moments later as Graziano Pelle took advantage of slack defending in the Magpies' box to head past a helpless Krul.

On the half-hour mark, Newcastle were again appealing for a penalty when they thought Jay Rodriguez had handled Sissoko's flick-on, but referee Pawson waved away their protests.

Newcastle managed to get themselves on level terms three minutes before the interval, as a corner found Papiss Cisse and the Senegalese forward's close-range effort beat Maarten Stekelenburg.

The Netherlands keeper was picking the ball out of his net again soon after the restart after a fast break out from Newcastle saw Gabriel Obertan tee up Wijnaldum for his first goal in English football.

Sadio Mane came close to levelling up the scores just after the hour when firing in a shot at goal, which Krul was equal to between the sticks.

Southampton did manage to snatch a draw late on, though, after substitut Long scored the game's third headed goal 11 minutes from time.

There could have been further drama at the death, but Mane passed up two chances in added time to see the points shared.