Newcastle United moved even further clear of the drop zone after Bruno Guimarães' diving header deep into stoppage time sealed a fifth straight home Premier League victory for Eddie Howe's men.
The Magpies had to come from behind to grab all three points after Ademola Lookman fired Leicester City in front on 19 minutes courtesy of a well-worked corner tactic.
VAR worked in favour of Newcastle to get them level in the match – 11 minutes after they fell behind – when Guimarães was judged to have not fouled goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel after his equalising goal was initially ruled out.
St James' Park erupted on 95 minutes when Joe Willock's deflected cross was met by the Brazilian international who headed the ball into the top-right corner of the net.
As a result, the hosts' gap to the relegation places grew from 10 points to 12 after 18th placed Burnley drew 1-1 at West Ham United this afternoon.
Story of the game
Ryan Fraser was the only Newcastle player to not start today's game from the team that beat Wolves last Friday, with Miguel Almiron – who impressed heavily in that 1-0 win – getting the nod from his head coach over Jacob Murphy.
After progressing to the semi-final stages of the Europa Conference League in midweek, Leicester made eight changes to the side that triumphed in Eindhoven, with the likes of Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes all dropping out of the starting lineup.
The first five minutes of this game may have been the most chaotic opening phase to a match in Dan Burn's career.
On 15 seconds he clattered Youri Tielemans – winning the ball in the process – and around a minute later, found himself out cold on the ground after colliding with his own goalkeeper.
The Blyth born defender soldiered on, buoyed by chants of "He's one of our own" from the Gallowgate End, and managed to then manufacture the first half-chance of the game when his acrobatic effort inside of the penalty area was met by a pile of Leicester bodies.
But after 19 minutes, it was Leicester who were the ones who got their noses in front.
A well-worked corner tactic from The Foxes saw Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall play a low ball into the front post to Ayoze Perez, who against his former club, teed the ball back to Ademola Lookman who fired his effort through a crowd of bodies to give the visitors the lead.
Newcastle were deservedly behind and being dominated in the middle of the park – and you felt they needed some brilliance from Allan Saint-Maximin if they were going to get anything from this game.
The Frenchman looked to seize his opportunity to terrorise the Leicester backline and broke on the counter attack with pace – but just before he was about to enter the penalty area, Dewsbury-Hall excellently stopped him in his tracks with a fine tackle.
Two minutes later, however, The Magpies got their equaliser – and it was a certain Brazilian who got it.
After somewhat of a goal-line scramble, Bruno Guimaraes managed to find the net after poking the ball through Kasper Schmeichel's legs after he failed to control the ball.
Despite that, Guimaraes' celebration was cut short and the goal was ruled out. But after a long VAR check, the goal was given after Jarred Gillett agreed with the 49,000 Toon fans in the stadium that the Danish goalkeeper was not fouled in the build-up.
It took Howe's men well over 30 minutes to essentially 'wake up' in this game, but they aimed to end it in front.
Saint-Maximin grabbed the ball from deep in his own half and played through Joelinton. Although it looked more logical to shoot, the midfielder dragged the ball wide-left and crossed into the path of Chris Wood, who couldn't get his header on target.
Bruno's last-second header sends St James' into raptures
Looking to pick up where they left off, Newcastle went in search of the lead from the get go – and Saint-Maximin was at the heart of that charge, but his two outside of the box shots both sailed over the crossbar.
The Foxes started to take control of proceedings after those two chances, with Dewsbury-Hall coming close with an effort from around 25-yards out.
Emil Krafth – who has made the right-back spot his own at Newcastle since Kieran Trippier's injury – made an incredible last-ditch recovery challenge to deny Lookman of a shot from a threatening position just before the hour mark.
The first sign of Newcastle seemingly being happy to settle for a point in this game was when Wood was replaced by a midfielder in Joe Willock, leaving Saint-Maximin to lead the line on his own, 20 minutes from time.
What followed was a series of substitutions and no side really asserting any form of dominance in the game as we headed into the closing stages – despite Leicester bringing on the dangerous Maddison and Barnes from off the bench.
It took until the last 10 minutes of the game for any team to have somewhat of an opportunity. Matt Targett's corner found Burn in acres of space at the back post, but he got his attempted header all wrong.
Leicester had a good chance five minutes from time to claim all three points for themselves when Dewsbury-Hall played an inviting ball across the face of goal, but Martin Dubravka was able to cling onto the ball.
And just as it looked like both sides were settling for a point, Newcastle – the team seemingly more prone than others to conceding late goals – found the winner.
Substitute Willock made a darting run from the half-way line before crossing into the path of Guimarães, who with the last kick of the game, headed into the top corner to seal Newcastle's fifth home win in a row in the most dramatic of fashions.
With that last-gasp win, Newcastle moved to 37 points and kept their unbeaten home run in 2022 in tact...
Starting XI's
Newcastle: Dubravka; Krafth, Schar, Burn, Targett; Shelvey, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Almiron, Wood, Saint-Maximin. (4-3-3)
Leicester: Schmeichel; Justin, Amartey, Soyuncu, Thomas; Tielemans, Mendy, Dewsbury-Hall, Perez, Daka, Lookman. (4-3-3)