Paqueta dents Newcastle title charge at St James' Park

Lucas Paqueta dented Newcastle's Premier League charge as West Ham came from behind to draw at St James' Park.

The 25-year-old Brazilian, a summer target for the Magpies, clinched a 1-1 draw with a 32nd-minute equaliser after Callum Wilson had ended his 10-game drought with an early strike.

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A point was no more than the Hammers deserved after recovering from a dreadful start in front of a crowd of 52,256 to deny Eddie Howe victory in his 600th game as a manager.

The Carabao Cup finalists badly missed the suspended Bruno Guimaraes, and even the introduction of £45million January signing Anthony Gordon for his debut could not get them over the line.

If Howe had feared any hangover from Tuesday night's semi-final success, he need not have worried - at least early on - as his side raced out of the blocks.

Joe Willock had already seen a first-minute strike ruled out by VAR after the ball had run out of play during the build-up when Wilson latched on to Sean Longstaff's defence-splitting pass to fire confidently past Lukasz Fabianski, his first goal in 11 appearances in all competitions.

The shell-shocked visitors found themselves pinned back deep inside their own territory as Longstaff, Kieran Trippier and Willock worked to feed Miguel Almiron and the returning Allan Saint-Maximin at regular intervals.

However, as they grew into the game, the Hammers started to threaten on the break and Sven Botman had to make an important block after Michail Antonio had worked his way into a promising position on the edge of the box.

To their credit the visitors, who had been made to pay for their catastrophic defending, looked far more compact as the half wore on and while Newcastle still enjoyed plenty of possession, they lacked