IT is incredibly easy to get a Valentine’s Day present really, really wrong.

My missus still hasn’t spoken to me since I bought her a new iron. That was seven years ago. So job done.

This time of the year is fraught with danger. There is a lot of pressure to be with your loved one and nobody else. Tricky when there is so much footie on.

You can just imagine the conversation in umpteen Newcastle households when it became known the club’s first-leg home tie for this Europa League clash against Metalist Kharkiv fell on February 14.

“But I’ve got to go, luv. It’s Newcastle. I’ll make it up to you. We’ll do something next year – unless there’s a game on.”

And some of the men are just as bad. Can a ticket to a football match ever be viewed as a romantic gesture? Maybe you would just about get away with it if the game was in Paris or Barcelona.

A cold night at St James’ Park is in its own way full of romance, even if there was little to be had last night in terms of football making the heart glow.

Those who risked the doghouse to see their team take on the boys from Ukraine watched a decent enough match, if one without too much excitement to savour.

Keeping with the romantic theme, if this game had been a first date then chances are there wouldn’t be a second.

Newcastle, however, get to do this all over again next week in a freezing cold Kharkiv. It is going to take a huge effort for them to get to the last 16.

Metalist aren’t brilliant, but they can pass the ball with accuracy and pace, know how to defend and are comfortable in possession. These teams always are. There was nothing really to choose between the sides, although Newcastle did have at least one perfectly good goal disallowed.

We are going through a period when the Premier League is not as sure as itself as it once was. And on this evidence, last season’s third-best team in Ukraine are at least as a good as the side that finished fifth in England.

Metalist carved out six good chances; on most occasions, bad finishing saved United. However, it was the officials who denied the Magpies. Far more frustrating on a truly international evening.

Newcastle had one Englishman in the starting line-up, Steven Taylor. The Metalist goalkeeper Olexandr Goryainov was the only Ukrainian in their own eleven. Between the two sides there were seven Argentinians, four Frenchmen, three Brazilians and two Senegalese.

There were a few genuine Ukrainians to be found in the city over the last few days. Metalist owner Serhiy Kurchenko paid for around 500 fans to travel to Newcastle and they looked as if they were enjoying themselves. They certainly sang their hearts out.

Resorting to lazy national stereotype is both racist and ignorant. Saying that, the Metalist fans liked a drink. They filled the bars around St James’ to sing their songs and empty the places of their beer. It’s fair to say they enjoyed themselves.

Kurchenko has a few quid – about two billion of them to be exact.

He also paid for his team to land up in England a week ago so they could train and play a bounce game at Whitley Bay.

It was clear that for the Ukrainians this was serious. Alan Pardew promised to put out a strong side and he did that. With Cheick Tioté and Yohan Cabaye as a midfield two, Moussa Sissoko playing behind Papiss Cissé, and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa starting at right-back, this was one of the strongest sides we have seen all season.

They did a lot right and have it within them to win in Ukraine, although everyone will have to be at their best.

Newcastle did score midway though the first-half when Cissé was wrongly given offside when he finished a cross from Sissoko.

He was onside as he started his run – a bad decision by the officials.

Sissoko is a terrific player. With him in the side, Pardew can justifiably believe he can get through to the next round.

Tioté was booked on 28 minutes for a late hack on Marlos, provoking much wailing and shouting from the visiting press. What happened to impartiality?

They were off their seats a minute later when Krul pulled off a point-blank save to deny Xavier’s header, the Cissé blew a chance when one-on-one with the keeper.

Both sides could and should have scored and Cissé even celebrated a 73rd-minute ‘goal’ that was harshly disallowed for offside.

Hearts weren’t quite broken, but they would have hurt just a tad.