Shane Long is hoping to keep an element of surprise in his game despite popping up with a headed equaliser to secure Saints a 2-2 opening day Premier League draw at Newcastle.

The Republic of Ireland international was thrown on as a second half sub at St James’ Park, and did all that could have been expected of him as he delivered a leveller.

Dusan Tadic laid on a terrifically measured right wing cross that found Long, who rose superbly above Daryl Janmaat, who is two inches taller than the Saints striker, and powered in a header which Newcastle keeper Tim Krul got nowhere near.

At less than 6ft tall, Long is certainly not the most physically imposing of strikers, and yet wins a huge amount in the air.

He often seems to surprise defenders by got how high he can climb, and is hoping they don’t get wise to it.

“I think defenders get a little bit surprised, because I’m not the biggest of players,” said Long.

“But I like to put my head in there, and I suppose with Graz (Pelle) the physical presence that he is it kind of leaves a little bit more space for me to attack.

“Krul is a good goalkeeper, he’s a big lad as well, so to put it past him with a header is always a nice feeling.”

Saints took the lead at Newcastle courtesy of Grazinao Pelle’s first away league goal since August last year, but found themselves 2-1 drown before Long levelled.

They then had chances to win it, but in the end had to settle for a point.

“I thought we had some great chances there towards the end to get the win and it shows how far we’ve come,” reflected Long.

“We were under pressure a lot for, I’d say, a good 60 minutes of that game - it was kind of end to end – but we stayed in it when times were tough and we caused them all sorts of problems on the break. It was disappointing not to get the win, but I suppose a draw isn’t a bad result.”

He added: “To go 1-0 up and then when it went 1-1 Maya had a great chance and it was an unbelievable save that Krul made with his foot and they went the other end and scored a goal.

“I think we felt a little bit hard done by by that stage, but we knew we were good enough to come back into it.

“It was nice to get the goal when I came on, but we had two or three chances to really put the game out of sight, and if we want to get as far as we did last season we need to be putting them away.”

Saints were missing a familiar presence in the dressing room in the shape of Ronald Koeman, but Long insisted they knew what his message would be.

“Yeah, it was a bit strange, but we all know how he wants us to play” he admitted.

“Erwin stepped in and has kept the same philosophy going. You could see that on the pitch, the lads knew their jobs, and hopefully he’ll be back with us and get us prepared for a tough week.”