JOHN CARVER has already endured every emotion since, officially, becoming Newcastle United’s head coach for the rest of the season – and he is only two matches in to his reign.

Whatever happens at the end of the campaign, Carver is sure to remember the afternoon when Stoke City travelled to St James’ Park, even though the vast majority of the game was instantly forgettable for everyone else.

After the satisfaction and enjoyment of a comfortable first win in charge at Hull City, he should really have had a second to savour after Jack Colback had put Newcastle ahead with 16 minutes remaining of a tight encounter which lacked quality.

There was an argument that Colback, who had already been booked for a foul on defender Marc Muniesa shortly after the break, should not have been on the pitch to find the net. Referee Kevin Friend decided against a second card when the midfielder committed a late foul on Victor Moses three minutes before his goal.

But after taking the lead, Newcastle should have had a second goal only for Gabriel Obertan and Ayoze Perez to waste a couple of fantastic chances. Stoke took advantage of the lifeline.

Carver was left fuming at his players when, with space all over the Newcastle half, the visitors moved forward and Peter Crouch ended up heading in an equaliser in stoppage-time.

Carver had been prevented from earning back-to-back wins as head coach which would have lifted Newcastle back in to the top half of the Premier League ahead of Wednesday night’s trip to Crystal Palace: a night when he will have a tactical battle with Alan Pardew for the first time.

By then he should have had time to calm down.

After plenty of talk about who picks the team, given the events north of the border at Rangers during the last week, Carver had a far easier build up with no fresh injury problems or new signings to think about. He opted against tinkering with the side which defeated Hull convincingly eight days earlier.

Having waited four matches to enjoy a win since taking the reins over from Pardew, it was pretty understandable for him to go with exactly the same team that was so successful and impressive at the KC Stadium.

It seemed set to be a frustrating afternoon for Newcastle on the back of such an impressive display. Stoke, boasting a club record points tally of 32 from their opening 23 Premier League games, had an early aim to try to slow things down and take the sting out of the home support.

It was quiet enough around St James’ without that tactic, but Newcastle grew in confidence in the first half and the fans warmed to the approach of Carver’s side. By half-time, Newcastle had been the creative side while Tim Krul was not called on until the dying seconds of the half.

With the exception of an early Jonathan Walters shot that scrambled wide, Stoke did plenty of probing but found Fabricio Coloccini, particularly, and his defence more than equal to what the visitors threatened them with.

Whenever Newcastle did attack, which became less frequent later in the opening period, they looked far more dangerous and capable of scoring. The best chance of the half was when Asmir Begovic instinctively turned behind a glancing Remy Cabella header from Moussa Sissoko’s cross.

That chance stemmed from a fast counter-attack, just like a few others. Begovic was called in to action a couple of other times in the half; the most crucial was when he darted off his line to gather at the feet of Sissoko when the Frenchman seemed certain to turn in a Cabella centre.

There were a couple of other half chances, with Sammy Ameobi and Cabella the main sources of creativity on the pitch. After a decent spell of pressure from Stoke, which amounted to very little, the latter threaded a lovely through pass behind the Stoke defence after another quick break.

Perez, who was lively and looked capable when he was picked out in space, took a touch before unleashing a lowly driven shot from the edge of the box which just bounced wide.

Despite those Newcastle chances, Carver was indebted to Krul seconds before half-time when the Dutchman made a point blank save at his near post to prevent Mama Biram Diouf’s diving header from finding the net.

The least said about the football after half-time the better. All too regularly both sets of players gifted possession back to the opposition, with neither side taking command. That encouraged Stoke more than anything, with Begovic a mere bystander until Colback’s goal.

Carver moved to freshen ideas up by introducing Papiss Cisse and Gabriel Obertan – for the ineffective Vurnon Anita and Cabella - and it had the desired effect. Obertan’s right wing cross was turned wide by the head of Cisse shortly after.

And Obertan was involved in the opener; just three minutes after Colback could have picked up a second caution for his late foul on Moses.

The French winger was picked out in space down the right. He rolled a pass towards the penalty spot, Sissoko took a touch before rolling in to the path of Colback and the midfielder picked out the bottom right corner of Begovic’s net.

Stoke could have had an equaliser moments later. Ireland applied a lovely, curled finish in to the top corner but when he was fed the ball from Nzonzi he was just offside.

It was the second time such a big decision had gone the way of Newcastle and both could quite easily have been to the benefit of Stoke.

Newcastle ought to have had a second. Firstly Obertan made a mess of a great three-on-one situation when he was picked out by Sissoko and then Perez powered high and wide after creating space for himself in the area.

Those proved costly. With the stadium clocks showing 90 minutes, Nzonzi rolled a pass in to the path of Cameron out wide. The right-back had the time to send over an accurate delivery to the back post, where the giant Crouch jumped above Janmaat and his header beat Krul by shaving the underside of the bar.

The outcome was probably a fair reflection, but Newcastle should have had the job done.