IT is one of the oldest clichés in the book, but this really was a game of two halves.

For the first 45 minutes at St James’ Park on Saturday, Newcastle United were as poor as they have been all season.

Slack defending, calamitous mistakes and bad decision-making meant the Magpies went in at half-time two goals down to a Bristol City team that hadn’t won away from home in the league since September.

In the second, they looked like a completely different team, galvanised and hell bent on righting the wrongs from the previous 45 minutes.

Albeit helped by the Robins’ gradual retreat into their own half, a couple of scrappy goals drew the Tynesiders level and given the amount of chances created they really should have won it.

The first-half performance was hardly ideal preparation for what could be a defining week in the club’s quest for promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, but if anything they should take the momentum they finished the game with into tomorrow night’s first-against-second clash at Brighton.

The next week is a time for cool heads and the fact Newcastle’s games against Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading are all away from St James’ Park could be a blessing in disguise. Benitez’s men have looked more comfortable away from home this season.

The desperation for an immediate return to the top-flight has translated into a knife-edge atmosphere at St James’ Park at times. The supporters have been frustrated by the team’s failure to see off the opposition more convincingly. The players have struggled to cope with the pressure.

“It's very important for the games ahead, they are the most important ones,” said winger Christian Atsu.

“We will prepare well, we are mentally strong and we are really focused on what we want to achieve.

“We approach every game with 100 per cent concentration. We are always positive and our performance in the second half was very good.

“It is football, anything can happen. We're going there to Brighton to work hard and try to win for Newcastle.

“Our away form is good, because we are together, we have very a good team spirit, we are really organised and it is difficult for teams to break us down.”

Make the same mistakes they did in the opening stages on Saturday on the south coast, though, and they will be punished.

Poor positioning and communication led to Bristol City’s opener in the 11th minute when 37-year-old Aaron Wilbraham got the better of the Newcastle backline to head home former Middlesbrough midfielder Gary O’Neil’s cross from the right.

Bristol City hardly looked like a team that had lost ten of their last 13 matches and they capitalised on another Newcastle blunder to make it 2-0 in the 21st minute.

Paul Dummett headed the ball back towards goal, but caught off guard Darlow failed to collect and left David Cotterill with an easy finish into an open goal.

It is the second time in three games Darlow has made an error coming off his line, but Benitez indicated he would stick with the 26-year-old tomorrow night.

Newcastle looked shell-shocked, the crowd in dismay and Cotterill’s goal came not long after Deandre Yedlin had made a last-ditch block to deny Bobby Reid from scoring.

Ayoze Perez’s deflected shot just before the half-hour mark was as good as it got in the first half.

Things could only get better - and luckily they did. After the break, Newcastle began to pile on the pressure. The lively Atsu rolled the ball across goal and Jonjo Shelvey’s effort ended up in the net via a touch from City midfielder Korey Smith.

As the clock ticked, Matt Ritchie saw a stinging effort clawed away by Fabian Giefer before Aleksander Mitrovic headed just over from Shelvey’s cross.

With eight minutes left, Ritchie sent another dangerous corner into the box and there was Ciaran Clark to put the ball in the back of the next with his back.

Newcastle pressed for a winner in the closing minutes, but the Robins held on for a point.

“It's two points dropped,” Atsu admitted. “It's a game that we have to win and not drop points in.

“But there are so many surprises in football so we just have to concentrate on Brighton.

“In the first half they defended really well and we conceded two early goals. In the second half we tried to press them more, and we were much better and created a lot of chances from which we could have won the game.

“Always I keep being positive and I thought we could have won it.

“I'm really disappointed for myself because I could have scored at the end to win the game. I have to score.

“There have been many games in which I could not score and I'm really disappointed that I could not score.

“The manager is always encouraging us to keep learning, keep concentrating and learn from our mistakes.

“He wants us to stay focused for the next few games.”