Crash, bang, wallop. This was some afternoon at St James’ Park. At its end Newcastle had maintained their hopes of Premier League football next season with a comeback from 2-0 down that shredded the nerves of both their fans and Everton’s defenders.

That Salomón Rondón looked offside as he teed up Ayoze Pérez for the 84th-minute winner was one detail of a hundred in a game that crackled with intensity from kick-off.

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The facts are that Dominic Calvert-Lewin gave Everton an early lead and that Richarlison made it 2-0 to the visitors just past the half hour. Rondón pulled one back midway through the second half before Pérez struck twice in the last nine minutes. It meant Newcastle had a fifth straight league win for the first time in 15 years.

Yet this was hardly the whole story. The goals will be recalled, of course, but there was drama all over the pitch and all through the 95 minutes as Lee Mason let numerous tough challenges go unpunished, as well as choosing to not even book Pickford for his 29th-minute lunge at Rondón, which brought Newcastle a penalty.

When it was missed Matt Ritchie and Everton went up the other end to make it 2-0, it seemed to be the day’s defining moment. But Newcastle refused to accept as much, and kept playing. Pérez and Miguel Almirón, supposedly lightweight talents, dug in.

It was Pérez’s cute 65th-minute chip to Rondón that initiated the fightback, the Venezuelan lashing in a volley past Pickford that may have taken a slight deflection off Jonjoe Kenny. Rafael Benítez, not normally a man for exaggeration, compared Pérez’s pass to the output of Lionel Messi and Rondón’s finish to that of Alan Shearer.

“Once we scored,” Benítez said, “everyone started believing we could score again.”

Four minutes after that the substitute Paul Dummett almost snatched an equaliser, but it was not until minute 81 that it came.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Everton’s Jordan Pickford brings down Newcastle’s Salomón Rondón – before saving the resulting penalty. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Pickford, who had an upside-down afternoon, was rocked back by a 30-yard drive from Almirón. The ball ricocheted to Pérez, who hit the rebound under Pickford.

St James’ was now in a fever and three minutes later Isaac Hayden lofted an Everton clearing header back over the defence as it moved out. The lob dropped to Rondón and with a touch of his thigh, the ball was with Pérez six yards out and he battered a volley past the exposed Pickford.

As the ground erupted, Silva claimed offside, then confronted Mason as he left the pitch. “The third goal is a big mistake by the assistant. It was clear offside – not just one player, not two, but five. It’s not in doubt.” Replays showed he was correct, though that will be of zero consolation.

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“It’s a big frustration because for 45 minutes we were really good, aggressive,” Silva added. “But at half-time I said the game is not finished, we have to do the same again. We should have killed the match.”

It had started so well, Everton’s ploy of attacking Newcastle’s left leading to a hasty Ritchie clearance 18 minutes in. Lucas Digne collected it, exchanged passes with Bernard and then floated a lovely cross that Calvert-Lewin guided beyond Martin Dubravka with his head.

Ritchie atoned by supplying the centre Pickford fluffed prior to the penalty. Pickford deliberately pulled down Rondón as the keeper realised his error. Perhaps the position of Kurt Zouma persuaded Mason not to show Pickford a red card. The Sunderland-born man then relished saving Ritchie’s kick.

Almost immediately André Gomes broke into the Newcastle box and rattled Dubravka with a fierce low cross. The keeper could only parry the ball away but it was directly to Richarlison.

It was 2-0 to Everton and Newcastle had a small mountain to climb. Via a circuitous rote, they got there.