Fresh from an audience with the US President, Sunday saw Yasir Al-Rumayyan swap the White House for the black and white one, as the decision over the club's new home reached a pivotal moment.

The Newcastle Chairman could be excused for checking to see whether those stadium plans include padded seats or padded cells after witnessing a chaotic afternoon at St.James' Park, when the hosts went behind, swiftly opened up a three goal lead and then came mighty close to blowing it.

Alexander Isak's first half brace made him only the second Magpie to reach 50 Premier League goals after Alan Shearer - who was in attendance. That landmark achievement was almost an afterthought though, as a game that encapsulated United's topsy-turvy season unfolded. 

Trailing to Callum Hudson-Odoi's sixth minute shot after an error by Jacob Murphy, Lewis Miley's 23rd minute effort heralded a spectacular 11 minute spell four attacks down the left yielded four goals.
 
Miley was one of three changes to the side beaten 0-4 at Manchester City; replacing Sandro Tonali. Kieran Trippier made way for Tino Livramento and Nick Pope was recalled at the expense of Martin Dubravka - despite the latter having signed a contract extension in the run up to this game.

Within two minutes of making it 1-1, United led after Murphy atoned for his earlier rick by touching home a deflected Lewis Hall centre with his knee.

2-1 then became 3-1 when a pitchside VAR review correctly deemed Ola Aina guilty of handball; Isak's unconvincing panenka spot kick conversion barely deceiving Matz Sels.

The former Magpie 'keeper was picking the ball out of his net again seconds later; another sweeping Newcastle move ending with Isak's shot taking a touch off Murillo, cheers giving way to shouts of "dodgy 'keeper.....

Having perfected the art of unlocking Forest's defence though, Newcastle promptly lost it after half time. A rare moment of danger early on saw Fabian Schar head against the Leazes goal frame, but thereafter most of the goalmouth action came at the other end of the pitch.

A series of misplaced passes and poor decisions gave the visitors hope and they regained a foothold in the game after Nikola Milenkovic bundled home Elliot Anderson's 63rd minute corner kick.

Apprehension among home players was mirrored by fans as the feast became a famine: near-misses around Pope's goal combining with a perplexing inability to trouble Sels. We've seen this film before.

Forest duly scored a third in the last seconds after more defensive uncertainty; substitute Ryan Yates bundling in a rebound off Schar after more defensiveparalysis followed a corner kick.

Thankfully though, the 4-4 draw that had begun to look nailed on didn't come to pass - due in no small part to the mercifully short three minutes of time that was added.

Substitute Callum Wilson almost ended a breakaway with a goal but was crowded out when trying to score, when options of passing or running the clock down seemed viable.

Even if it was a game of two halves at best - a third win of the season over Nuno Espirito Santo's side was immaculately timed ahead of the twin tests against Liverpool, not to mention the FA Cup visit of Brighton and beyond that the lure of further Wembley action.

Quite what our priorities and realistic expectations are for the remainder of a season when we're fighting on three fronts remain to be seen - the team selection at Anfield on Wednesday may well give a strong indication.

Today the main plusses apart from recovering yet again from an early setback were the return to form of two players and the return of a third.

Lewis Hall bounced back from last week's setback at Manchester City to have a sizeable influence at both ends of the field, while Joe Willock belatedly showed glimpses of his former self, perhaps now trusting his own body not to let him down. 

And as for the returnee, Lewis Miley belied his 18 years with a confident and unruffled display on what was his first PL start for almost exactly a year. Selling Anderson and keeping him counts as a major plus in our mind,

Substitutions were mixed: our collective waywardness and panic-striken state prompt thoughts that Kieran Trippier would replace Tino Livramento, but the defence remained unaltered and the changes came further upfield -Sandro Tonali effective, Harvey Barnes rather less so. 

On to those that were missing and the jumpiness (or lack of it) at corners made the unavailability of Sven Botman an issue, while Bruno continues to look less influential in the absence of Joelinton.

In years to come, this game may be recalled as being pivotal to the club's destiny as was the 1-1 home draw with Liverpool in October 2017 when Amanda Staveley attended for the first time.

In the immediate future though, three valuable points lifted Eddie Howe's side from seventh to fifth, restored hopes of European qualification and left 50,000 fans mightily relieved - this club, man....

Biffa