Eddie Howe praises 'incredible' thing Newcastle United star did in 4-4 draw v Luton Town

Harvey Barnes scored Newcastle United's equalising goal in Saturday's 4-4 draw with Luton Town at St James' Park.

Sean Longstaff scored twice for Newcastle in the first-half but the hosts were pegged back by goals from Gabriel Osho and Ross Barkley. Luton then took the lead in the second half through Carlton Morris before Elijah Adebayo made it 4-2.

At two goals down, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe introduced Harvey Barnes from the bench for the winger's first appearance since September due to injury. And after Kieran Trippier pulled a goal back for The Magpies, Barnes stepped up and side-footed in an equalising goal from outside the box with his left foot to rescue a point.

On Barnes' goal, Howe said: "An incredible finish from Harvey on his left foot. That was a valuable one for us today."

It was a rollercoaster game for Newcastle as they made it three matches without a win at St James' Park. "It was a strange game really," Howe added. "So much to look back on and reflect on. We are disappointed to have not grown stronger in the game. Credit to Luton on how they got back into the game. And then we had to do that as well."

The Magpies have now conceded 10 goals in their last three home matches following 3-1 and 3-2 defeats to Nottingham Forest and Manchester City respectively. And Howe acknowledged his side were 'poor' at the back once again.

"The first one is a set play and another is a penalty," he continued. "We made some poor decisions defensively.

"When we went 1-0 up I don't think we handled it well until they equalised. I wanted us to grab control of the game but we didn't.

"That's the frustrating thing. In that moment we had a lack of confidence and then a real credit to the players for coming back because it is not easy to do. We scored some great goals and could have won it."

Barnes' equaliser went in with 17 minutes of normal time remaining before 10 minutes of stoppage time were added. The £38million summer signing came close to scoring a winner in the closing stages but ultimately the home side had to settle for a point.