Four, four-letter words. Love. Hate. King. Isak.Just when we thought the most emotionally-charged collective of the afternoon would be the minute’s applause for Kevin Keegan, Alexander Isak stepped from the line of red jerseys to take kick-off.How foolish of the visitors. How naive to play so willingly into the hands – and mouths – of their hosts. As if they needed any extra encouragement. They had already hissed their hatred when Isak left the team bus. This time, he could not hide behind his AirPods.From Keegan to Isak, The Messiah to The Pariah, this was a different noise entirely. Hostile does not come close. This was vicious. This was vitriol. The Toon Army had waited a year to take aim at their former striker and, when the moment came, they did not miss. It set the tone for what followed.The home crowd had to wait only four minutes more for Isak’s first touch to go wrong. Sixty seconds later and, for Newcastle at least, everything felt so right. The breakaway goal was the sort that used to involve Isak – fast, direct and ruthless.How fitting, then, that it was a Swede who scored. Anthony Elanga was bought last summer to play with his compatriot, before he defected to Merseyside. Unlike Keegan, Isak is not loved by both sets of supporters. In fact, you wonder if Liverpool’s are even that keen. His performance here would have done nothing to endear him. It said everything that those in black and white loved it, as Keegan might say. Alexander Isak endured a difficult afternoon on his first return to Newcastle since leaving His long-awaited return to St James’ Park saw him greeted by a vitriolic and vicious receptionIndeed, there were two moments to rival Newcastle’s goals for noise, and they both, to little surprise, involved Isak. First, after a challenge by Lewis Hall to leave the Premier League’s most expensive player clutching his ankle, new Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle, standing only yards away, threw his arms in the air. Not in protest at Isak staying down, but in invitation of a little more Geordie scorn for this fallen foe. They duly obliged. Isak did not like it and was quickly on his feet to let the German know. Not that he cared.Jaissle, you suspect, will care for little beyond that which affects him and his team. For 95 minutes, he got the better of fellow managerial debutant Andoni Iraola on the pitch, and when it came to animation and aggression, the touchline too. His cajoling, his snarl and disregard for the boundaries of his technical area will quickly win him friends on Tyneside. Mocking their enemy with not hurt, either. That brings us to the second explosion of noise.At 2-1 in the 69th minute, Isak was presented with his first big chance. It would prove to be his last. Those in the low rows of the Leazes End were ready to bury their heads in their hands – Isak had a clear sight at goal from 14 yards – only to use those same palms as a form of protection. Isak’s shot flew hopelessly into the stands.As the clock then ticked beyond the last of five added minutes, it felt like Isak’s miss would be Liverpool’s last inglorious act in front of goal. When they then won a penalty, you wondered whether he would take it. You wondered, too, whether his own fans would have wanted him to – the odds on redemption felt considerably longer than those on ridicule. Dominik Szoboszlai was a wiser choice and, with his blast, the points were shared.Maybe that is what Keegan would have wanted, albeit without the reminder of a stoppage-time goal from Liverpool. The sight of him slouched behind the Anfield advertising hoarding in 1996, following Stan Collymore’s 92nd-minute winner in the 4-3 classic, will forever capture the ecstasy and agony of Keegan and his great Entertainers side, who were all present here.Newcastle fared better in terms of result this time, but the hurt was just the same. They had deserved to win. They had done what teams are told to avoid – they had played the occasion. They played it with, at times, some beauty. But more so, a brutal intensity that suggests they will not be feeling sorry for themselves on the back of a turbulent summer.The challenge, of course, is to replicate that when the likes of Bournemouth and Hull City come to St James’ Park in the coming weeks. There will be no occasion to play then, no former hero to vilify or emotional current to ride. The emphasis will be on breaking teams down as opposed to running them over.Still, Newcastle’s supporters would have left this opener more enthused than Liverpool’s. The Reds were unconvincing and Isak was not alone in appearing paralysed by pressure. The man who now wears his old No 9, Yoane Wissa, was the game’s best player, save for the miss that would have made it 3-1 four minutes from time. Newcastle fans paid homage to Kevin Keegan before the match following his recent death Before the match, Newcastle supporters unfurled a Keegan quote about dreaming bigBefore the game, a Keegan quote was unfurled across the Gallowgate End. ‘I want people to dream about their football club. They should. We should all be dreamers at heart. Some people are the opposite and say, “we can’t do that”. But when you ask them why they can’t give a reason. Well, I say, “why not?”.’Until the very last kick, at least, this was the dream the Geordies had imagined – and the nightmare they had wished upon Isak. Then came the equaliser. Four, four-letter words had framed the afternoon. Four goals settled it.And, for Newcastle, there was one more. Pain.