16 mins Attacking the end where the majority of the Newcastle fans were housed, Kevin Nolan fed a through to Jonas Gutierrez, who dallied briefly before clipping through a perfect ball for Peter Lovenkrands to run onto shoot beyond Coyne into the corner of the net from 10 yards. The goal led to a solo pitch invasion from an away fan and several more being escorted from other parts of the ground after giving themselves away 1-0

36 mins Former Celtic midfielder Barry Robson played a one-two with Scott McDonald before hitting a fine left-footed shot from the edge of the box that curled away from Steve Harper. The thought police at the Riverside long ago decreed that home fans are incapable of celebrating without musical accompaniment, meaning that a snatch of "Chelsea Dagger" by the Fratellis was inflicted on the populace. Long may this gimmick remain banned at SJP. 1-1

Half time: smogs 1 Magpies 1

74 mins The home side made their pressure pay when Barry Robson swung over a deep free kick from the right. Killeen beat Hall to head back across goal from the far post, to where Scott McDonald swivelled to net his first Boro goal from point-blank range. 1-2

82 mins Having by his own admission contributed little else, Andy Carroll was in the right place to  control a looping right wing centre from Ryan Taylor and fire the ball home left-footed from ten yards out 2-2

Full time: smogs 2 Magpies 2

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton said:

"The fact we were away from home, had gone 2-1 down and had defensive problems means we have to be delighted to have pulled it back to 2-2. Middlesbrough had very good periods during the first half and the second half, but we came on strong late in the game and might have nicked it.

"Mike Williamson has a broken bone in his hand and will be out for three to four weeks. It was an unusual accident. He was doing some fitness work at home, slipped and caught what is the hand’s equivalent of the metatarsal bone on the foot.

"Fabricio had a dead leg. They get more painful as times goes on. He’s a tough lad, so for him to have to come off when he did shows how much pain he must have been in. With dead legs, you just have to wait and see, so we’ll have to assess him for Wednesday.

"They’re a good side, and we caught them on the ascendancy. But we have a real desire not to lose games. And Forest losing is a bonus. What we have always had this season is we are never out of a game. I can think of games where we have lost - at Blackpool, where we were very much still in the game towards the end; Scunthorpe was a game we lost that we were still very much in at the end and had the better chances.

"That's one thing we have in this group of lads, a real desire not to give up, and you just hope among all that, you have a bit of fortune in front of goal.

"What you saw in Andy (Carroll) today was a player who is in good goalscoring form. By our admission and his own, it wasn't one of his better games today and the chance he had was very much a half-chance. But this is a lad who is in good goalscoring form and when you are in that type of form, they are the type of goals you score."

Our third successive smogside stalemate had a distinctly tartan tinge to it, with Scottish representation in both dugouts and all four goalscorers having some connection to the land of heather and Buckfast; albeit tenuous in at least one case....

That loose affiliation is Andy Carroll (via a grandparent), with Scotland manager Craig Levein harbouring hopes of a kilted conversion and the lad not quite ruling it out. Slightly more authentically though, Lovenkrands (Danish, but with a Glaswegian accent), McDonald (Aussie with a Scots name) and Robson (an actual Aberdonian) have all played and scored in Old Firm derbies.    

This ended up as more of an infirm derby though, at least as far as the Newcastle defence was concerned. Problems began before the game when Mike Williamson's run in the side ended thanks to a broken bone in his hand, resulting in the return of Fitz Hall after a five game absence. 

With Danny Simpson carrying a knock from a heavy first half challenge, United then lost Fabricio Coloccini just five minutes into the second half, forced off with a dead leg. Despite Jose Enrique's presence on the bench, the Spaniard remained warming up on the sidelines as "super sub" Ryan Taylor came on at right back, Simpson switching flanks and Tamas Kadar going into the centre. 

That sort of reshuffle was enough to make a point on this ground a decent return despite having taken the lead from only our second noteworthy attack - and first effort on target. The home side were much steadier than they'd looked at SJP in December and unlike that game, took the conceding of an early goal in their stride rather than fading away.

However that's not to say that Newcastle's display was totally convincing, with goalkeeper Danny Coyne not seeing enough of the ball to prove that he was any less flappable than Brad Jones had been on Tyneside last time round.

Our reservations about Pancrate remain - especially when playing in the starting XI rather than coming off the bench to twist his way round tiring defenders - and some slightly more considered defending than in the SJP meeting dampened the impact of Jonas Gutierrez, without conceding free kicks in dangerous positions. The return of Routledge is eagerly awaited.

The replacement of Lovenkrands for Nicky Butt in the second half attracted some vocal criticism from the away end but the Dane did look to be tiring and Hughton opted to try and hold out at 1-1. That ploy didn't last long, but at least he had one replacement remaining - promptly bringing on Best. Negativity/dithering in some eyes, flexibility in others.

Just when our second league reverse of 2010 looked like becoming a reality though, up popped the otherwise low-impact Andy Carroll to earn a priceless point as he had done at Swansea City. 

This equaliser seemed no more likely than it had that lunchtime at the Liberty Stadium, but a knack of getting late goals is a nice trick to have for a striker. Andy has now scored in three consecutive away league games - the last person to do that? Alan Shearer*.

Newcastle will know that they can play a lot better than this, whereas this may have been the best performance Jimmy Krankie has coaxed from his Celtic rejects to date. Aside from the avoidable daftness on leaving the ground, the news from elsewhere made for a fairly satisfactory day's work after all - with West Brom just sneaking past Blackpool and Forest continuing their rotten away run at Preston (it's now five away league losses on the bounce for them).

Now for some unfinished business against Scunthorpe...

Biffa


(* Kevin Nolan did it in three consecutive appearances this season but not in consecutive games).