Goal-shy Almiron fluffs his lines for

newcastle united 1 Schar (41) watford 1 Hughes (2)

Newcastle head coach Steve Bruce was left to rue missed chances as Watford opened their Premier League account for the season with a draw on Tyneside.

Miguel Almiron, who is still awaiting his first goal in a Newcastle shirt since his £21-million arrival at St James’ Park in January, was guilty of passing up two glorious opportunities either side of the break as they failed to follow-up last weekend’s fine win at Tottenham with another three points.

They head into the international break with four points from their opening four fixtures, a return which Bruce is relatively happy with after a difficult start to his reign despite a crowd of just 44,157 – the lowest for a league game since December, 2012 – in attendance.

He said with a smile: “What are we? One point behind Chelsea and one point behind Manchester United or something, is it? There you go, it hasn’t been such a bad start after all.

“Listen, in there has been Tottenham and Arsenal, so I have got to be reasonably pleased.”

Watford’s Will Hughes stunned the Magpies with less than two minutes on the clock when he converted the rebound after Tom Cleverley’s shot had ricocheted off both Paul Dummett and Jamaal Lascelles and dropped neatly into his path.

Defender Fabian Schar levelled four minutes before the break, and although replays suggested the ball had hit Isaac Hayden’s hand as he challenged Craig Dawson during the build-up, the goal was allowed to stand.

Bruce said: “I thought Isaac just went for a challenge and I thought it was an aerial duel.

“But it did come off his hand, didn’t it?

“Look, it’s difficult. We’re going to have many issues with VAR. It’s not the fixed answer – I’m not so sure I’m a big lover of it, to be perfectly honest,