Newcastle's U23 side were in Premier League Cup action on Friday night, making the marathon trek to Hampshire and returning with a valuable point.

And having not had sight of goal all evening, in-form striker Elias Sorensen kept his cool in the closing moments to cancel out Southampton's first half opener. 

United wore their blue change kit as they lined up in heavy rain at the Saints training base in Staplewood and fell behind after eighteen minutes.

Striker Will Smallbone saw his shot from inside the box blocked by Nathan Harker, but the visiting custodian was unable to prevent the unmarked Marcus Barnes from sweeping the rebound home for the opener. 

Ben Dawson's side mounted their first decent attack of the night within two minutes and Callum Roberts scampered into the Southampton box before forcing goalkeeper Jack Rose into a stop at his near post.

With conditions hampering both sides, United didn't threaten again until a corner kick on the hour from Olly Walters fell at the near post, causing confusion in the six yard box before Mo Sangare found Adam Wilson, who fired harmlessly over the crossbar.

At the other end there was almost a re-run of Southampton's goal on 70 minutes, Harker blocking Jonathan Afolabi's shot and Barnes collecting the rebound - only to put his effort wide of the post.   

With just a minute of normal time remaining though, Newcastle levelled when a fine clipped pass from Roberts found Sorensen as he advanced into the box and the striker swept the ball home.

The hosts almost snatched all three points deep into added time when Smallbone was fouled on the edge of the Newcastle box and clipped the crossbar from the resultant free kick in a central position.

Within seconds the full time whistle had sounded, United avoiding defeat on the South Coast for the first time at reserve level following a quartet of league and cup losses here in recent seasons.

Thanks to GW