Leeds United man instructs rival, hair pull and hydrostatic heads - off-camera Newcastle moments

It was a pig of a day and the performance wasn’t pretty, but it did the job and secured an important clean sheet for Jesse Marsch. Here’s the YEP take on who stood out and moments you might have missed.

Good day

Illan Meslier

There have rarely been questions over Illan Meslier's shot stopping ability and his one-v-one track record is pretty sensational, but the compliments have not flown so freely over his command of set-pieces. At Newcastle, against a team of gargantuan brutes, he was assured and aggressive. The big saves he made were matched for importance by the punches and catches from free-kicks and corners. Quel joueur.

Tyler Adams

Mateusz Klich is the master of nuisance and the dark arts at Leeds, but in Adams he has an apprentice who looks more than ready to take the torch if the Pole departs. Adams produced his customary shift in midfield but as the game drew towards its close, he took things to a new level and sought to make himself the least popular man on Tyneside. He fits in well at Leeds.

Bad day

Chris Wood

Could have had a hat-trick against his former club but squandered three chances to do so. Ended a couple of promising attacks by straying offside, too. In a very good Newcastle team his industry and physicality, along with being in the right place to get chances, look valuable but he's not currently prolific enough in the Premier League to add the goals they need to go to the next level.

The press corps

Sitting out in the elements is no issue for the vast majority of football journalists, it's actually preferable to those grounds where you're inside, behind glass and removed from the atmosphere. You want to be in the middle of it. At Newcastle, however, you're so exposed to the elements that laptops were as much at risk of becoming waterlogged as the playing surface.

Off-camera moments

Mehrdad Ghodoussi, co-owner of Newcastle United, welcoming Jesse Marsch to St James' Park on the pitch alongside his son.

Rene Maric helping himself to a photo at the famous ground prior to the game, fitness coach Pierre Barrieu plumping for a panoramic video for his social media channels.

Crysencio Summerville, Jesse Marsch's recent star pupil, showing Willy Gnonto something or other on his phone, presumably in relation to set-pieces or some other pre-Newcastle homework. One of his phones, that is. He carried two with him onto the pitch.

Jesse Marsch doing his best Jurgen Klopp impression, standing out on the pitch watching the opposition warm up.

Another quirk of St James' Park is the miniscule technical areas. The first half wasn't very old at all when Marsch was being told to get back inside his by fourth official Craig Pawson. "The box is so small," was the American's retort.

One benefit of the press box placement at Newcastle is the proximity to the dugouts and the touchline, giving a great view of Luke Ayling's first flop of the afternoon and his subsequent defence of it to home players and assistant manager Jason Tindall. The media also had ringside seats for Adams’ ding-dong with a linesman, a verbal battle that Marsch was keen to bring to an end before his player took a costly card.

When Ayling's time was up and he came off, to be replaced by his direct positional rival Rasmus Kristensen, he instructed the big Dane to 'see it out.' Despite their rivalry for the shirt, the two are apparently thick as thieves at Thorp Arch and have developed a bond as they duke it out for starts.

As the rain poured down and the Magpies poured on the pressure, a ballboy rushed to throw a ball on for a quick throw before turning his attention to the one that went into the stand. It was thrown back towards the pitch, he turned to intercept it and stacked it on the wet turf.

The game got incredibly tetchy towards the end as Newcastle's frustration grew, matched by Leeds' willingness to frustrate them. Adams was playing a key role in that and Callum Wilson let him know with a little tug of his hair, apparently ignored by officials who were trying to get to the full-time whistle without a full-blown flare up.

To give an insight into the sheer volume of rain that fell during the afternoon, Marsch came into his press conference with his jumper soaked through. The rain got the best of his jacket's hydrostatic head.