HULL City boss Steve Bruce was left to rue costly mistakes which led to Newcastle clawing their way back to a 2-2 draw this afternoon at St James' Park.
Superb second-half goals from Nikica Jelavic and Mohamed Diame had given the Tigers a two-goal cushion, which looked set to hand them all three points and pile the pressure on under-fire Magpies boss Alan Pardew.
However, lapses in concentration and nervousness at the back when Newcastle began to pressure meant the advantage fizzled out and the spoils were shared after Papiss Cisse's brace.
Bruce admitted the draw felt like a defeat after seeing his side lead in such a commanding position.
"It feels like a defeat if I'm honest. We made 3 horrible mistakes that cost us," he said.
"It could've been a fantastic start (to the Premier League) for us. Instead it's just been decent.
"We normally can see the game through but on this occasion we were unable to see it through.
"Individual errors, we all make mistakes, it's part of our DNA unfortunately, and we made two or three today. The goals in particular, Andy's (Robertson) got caught out of possession.
"He's a young boy and he's going to make a few mistakes but overall we're disappointed because we've come up here to get a win and performed admirably and we were good enough to win the match."
City were seemingly cruising at 2-0 enough to take off Abel Hernandez and Nikica Jelavic and bring on Sone Aluko and David Meyler respectively.
However, Bruce was left to regret the complacency which settled in after taking the lead.
"There were 15 minutes to play and that's what we thought, just see it through. We were so comfortable it was frightening and that's the situation where we become too complacent and suddenly it starts," he added.
"We gave the ball away too often. You can talk about mistakes, but the goals we scored today were fantastic and should've been enough to win the match."
Newcastle boss Pardew revealed how proud he was of how his side conducted themselves amid the protests against the team's hierarchy and management.
"Cheick (Tiote) came over to me and said: 'Gaffer, we're playing well but we can't score.' We stuck Papiss on and our senior players were magnificent today," Pardew said.
"We needed that experience and I'm very fortunate I've got those types of players for me. I'm very proud of the way they conducted themselves as a team and staff, and we go to the next game.
"It's been a difficult start for us, we can't try to we're not quite as good as we showed but I feel we were good at times and I hope our fans see that.
"I'm very proud to be a football manager at this great club and I'm going to fight to try and keep my job."
