Newcastle United wasted a golden opportunity to claim their first three points of the season, as Kenedy's last-minute penalty was saved and saw the spoils shared with Cardiff City.

It certainly wasn't one to remember for either set of fans with only half-chances taking up the first period, Sol Bamba and Ayoze Pérez came close for their respective sides but both failed to take advantage.

The home side should have taken the lead at the beginning of the second period but Kenneth Zohore put his header wide, it was made easier for Neil Warnock's side with the dismissal of Isaac Hayden. Newcastle got their chance with a penalty in the final minute of the contest, but Kenedy's poor effort saw the spoils shared.

Testing the waters

Both sets of fans felt disappointment on the opening day, but it would be safe to say Newcastle would have felt the more positive having pushed Tottenham Hotspur the full distance.

Many have already written off Cardiff on their return to the top-flight having failed to really splash out on new faces like their opponents, and the lack of quality showed somewhat in the opening period with fans being treated to scraps of quality.

The first chance came inside 10 minutes as Bamba was greeted with a free header from the corner, the defender certainly didn't get the power he wanted and a combination of Pérez and debutant Harry Arter blocked the weak effort and was eventually cleared.

Seconds later Pérez was up the other end of the field having a chance of his own as the ball deflected off Joe Bennett, however, the ball got caught up in his feet and as the angle tightened and it was saved well by Neil Etheridge.

Jonjo Shelvey played an excellent pass again into the path of the Spaniard in the 40th minute, with his cross swinging in far from the right into the back post but once again Pérez was thwarted by the tight angle and the ability of Etheridge.

Cardiff miss great chance take the lead

Warnock's team looked the better side as they came out for the second period, and certainly should have taken their shot in the 54th minute.

Joe Ralls did well to pick out the unmarked Zohore in the six-yard area, but the Dane wasted the chance as he steered his header well wide of the mark.

Newcastle went down to ten men

Craig Pawson was criticised last weekend for the dismissal of Phil Jagielka in Everton's 2-2 draw with Wolves, and was the talking point again as the visitors going a man down.

Hayden had only been on the pitch all of 20 minutes before going through the back of Josh Murphy, and the official had no hesitation in sending him for an early shower.

Wasting their golden opportunities

Both sides battled on as the clock began to tick down, and despite having a numerical disadvantage had two golden opportunities to leave The Valleys with all three points.

They won a free kick on the edge of the D which looked perfect for Shelvey, but it was Kenedy that took the effort and slammed it straight into the wall.

It did look like a draw was on the cards until Pawson pointed to the spot, Yoshinori Muto looked to curl in a last-ditch cross before it struck the arm of Sean Morrison.

Kenedy looked to step up and redeem his earlier miss, but his spot-kick was poor as Etheridge saved his second consecutive penalty.