Aaron Ramsdale threw his arms out in anger. Malick Thiaw slammed the turf. A stunned Dan Burn and Jacob Murphy had their hands on their head. History was repeating itself for Newcastle United as the BayArena erupted following an 88th-minute equaliser for Bayer Leverkusen's Alex Grimaldo.

After showing remarkable spirit to come from behind, and take the lead against the German side, Newcastle were again denied a precious victory. They had conceded yet another late goal. "You have to stand up and be counted and we didn't do it well enough," Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said following the 2-2 draw in the Champions League. "That's a team thing – the whole group realising the importance of defending our goal."

Newcastle have now conceded nine goals in the final 10 minutes of games in all competitions this season. Only Nottingham Forest have let in more among Premier League clubs. "It all comes back to mentality," goalscorer Anthony Gordon told TNT Sports. "We have to hold out in these games because that is what top teams do."

Newcastle aspire to be a top team, of course. And there was no danger of the visitors having one eye on Sunday's Wear-Tyne derby. Such was the importance of this game, and the respect he had for Leverkusen, Howe named arguably his strongest available side as Lewis Hall, Joelinton, Sandro Tonali, and Harvey Barnes all came into the team.

Yet they quickly found themselves going behind in familiar circumstances after failing to get the first contact on Aleix Garcia's corner kick. Leverkusen captain Robert Andrich easily shrugged off Tonali at the back post to head the ball off the back off Bruno Guimaraes and into the net.

"We're not doing it well enough," Gordon said. "Again it comes back to mentality. We need to be stronger, we need to be better. Ultimately, it's consistency. We need to be a consistent team in every phase of the game."

Newcastle have spent time working on set-plays of late, but a usually assured side have looked shaky from corners in the last week or so, in particular. Cristian Romero scored a dramatic late equaliser from a corner last Tuesday before Jacob Ramsey handled the ball inside the box from a similar situation just four days later when Newcastle were 2-0 up against 10-man Burnley. Zian Flemming scored the resulting penalty that set up a nervy finish, and Newcastle were mightily relieved not to concede another stoppage-time equaliser when Burnley substitute Josh Laurent narrowly headed wide in the last act of the game.

However, this time, Newcastle still had plenty of time to recover after Leverkusen took an early lead. But that did not make it any less palatable for Howe. "That's the one that really gets me," he said. "Because we worked a lot on set-plays in between the last game and we didn't defend it well enough."

Yet Newcastle found a way to climb it. Following some strong words at half-time, the visitors rallied after the break and won a penalty courtesy of Nick Woltemade aggressively pressing Leverkusen goalkeeper Mark Flekken. And after equalising from the spot, Gordon then went on to set up substitute Lewis Miley's header to put Newcastle in front.

However, another familiar issue reared its head. Despite taking the lead in the 74th minute, Newcastle were unable to see out the game. This side have dropped more points from winning positions - 11 - than any other team in the Premier League. They have failed to win four of their past five away games in all competitions despite taking the lead in all of them at some stage.

Newcastle may have hit the upright through substitute Jacob Murphy after going in front, but Howe's side began to drop deep against Leverkusen late on, consciously or not. And Grimaldo's clever dummy took Newcastle's midfield out of the game before Leverkusen's talisman levelled.

It was a familiar story for Howe. "I don't think it's ever a case of sitting back and absorbing pressure," the Newcastle head coach said. "That's not number one in our aim, but you need to do whatever it takes to win. Sometimes that is par for the course, that's what you have to do."

Newcastle remain on course for at least a play-off spot and are only a couple of points off the automatic qualification places for the last 16. But Howe's team cannot afford to let history repeat itself when they host a PSV side who are starting to hit form, on 21 January, before a trip to the Parc des Princes to take on holders Paris St-Germain a week later. "It leaves us in a good position - it's in our hands," Howe told TNT Sports. "We have two tough games to come but we'll look forward to playing at home and then, of course, a really tough one at the end which we knew was always there."