What Newcastle United fans saw during Anthony Gordon's blistering 21-minute debut

Gordon made his debut off the bench in the club’s 1-1 draw against West Ham United – and the former Everton winger quickly made an impression.

The January signing helped Newcastle regain the initiative from the visitors, but Eddie Howe's side couldn’t get a breakthrough.

And West Ham took a point home thanks to a first-half strike from Lucas Paqueta which had cancelled out an early strike from Callum Wilson. Newcastle dropped down to fourth in the table.

Howe, without the suspended Bruno Guimaraes, had handed Allan Saint-Maximin his first Premier League start in more than five months.

United’s head coach had spoke of the importance of his players quickly switching their attention back to the Premier League following Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final win over Southampton, and his team didn’t waste any time getting started.

They had the ball in the net after just 40 seconds, but Joe Willock’s strike was ruled out after VAR adjudged the ball having been out of play before it was cut back by Miguel Almiron.

Remarkably, Newcastle won the ball back from the restart – and scored again. Sean Longstaff played a superb third-minute through ball to Wilson, who got between Angelo Ogbonna and Nayef Aguerd to score his first goal in 11 games.

This time, the strike stood after a VAR check after it was shown to be onside.

Gordon was given a warm welcome by fans when he was sent out to warm up midway through the half.

Newcastle weren’t able to build on their early lead, and there was an inevitability about West Ham’s equaliser, which was scored by Paqueta, who had been linked with the club last summer before he joined the London Stadium club.

Paqueta, standing at the far post, got the better of Kieran Trippier and poked the ball home after a Declan Rice corner was flicked on by Aguerd and Joelinton.

The strike, sloppy from Newcastle’s point of view, was the first goal conceded in the Premier League at the stadium since October 8.

Howe switched Joelinton into a deeper midfield role in response, but his team couldn’t get any fluency or momentum going forward. Rice bossed the midfield for much of the half, and Howe had a lot to think about ahead of the half-time interval.

Saint-Maximin – who hadn’t made much of an impact before the break – had a shot blocked after the restart, but chances were few and far between for Newcastle.

Howe replaced Saint-Maximin with Gordon in the 69th minute, and the 21-year-old quickly got involved. Fans got a couple of early glimpses at his blistering pace before West Ham manager David Moyes sent on Tomas Soucek and Pablo Fornals.

Gordon then created an opening for Wilson with a superb ball, but Aguerd slid in to stop the striker before he could shoot.

Jacob Murphy and Elliot Anderson were sent on for the last nine minutes, but there was to be no late winner, despite a spell of late pressure.

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Willock (Anderson, 81), Longstaff, Joelinton, Almiron (Murphy, 81), Wilson, Saint-Maximin (Gordon, 69). Subs not used: Dubravka, Dummett, Lascelles, Ritchie, Lewis, Fraser.